Burn Brightly
by dragonfly360
Summary: So. I found a human - with Shinigami powers - and what happened to NON-existant hormones? And what's this - connections with my old captain? And aren't they meant to be dead anyway? Oh Dear. HitsuOC HitsuxOC HitsugayaOC Post-Aizen Fluff and slight OOCness
1. Beginnings

Hello again!

When its in first person, its Shizuka's (OC) or Hitsugaya's POV. Sometimes it will be someone else but it usually says who it is. This story is set after the Aizen arc, and he will have a minimal role in this story. I'll use him for angst and we'll find out how he's connected later.

This is the first rewritten chapter (I added things and took out others, changed things, etc.), I also took out the translations at the bottom, but feel free to ask if you don't understand something or want a meaning of a name ^^.

WARNING: still contains **major spoilers**.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, Hitsugaya Tōshirō would be the main character and he would be madly in love with me (AKA: someone who is NOT Hinamori...Not that he's in love with her [-they're like siblings people god damnit!-]).

P.S: Chewing gum helps the stimulation of the brain. Listen to your grandparents, seriously.

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"What the hell is going on?"

I mutter as I try to open my eyes, and failing miserably. What could have happened to make me unable to open my eyes? I know I'm not blind, I think I would feel it if someone had put a blindfold on me or something... Or if someone sewed my eyes shut.

"Where am I?"

This is sad. Here I am, a nice young girl sprawled on the floor, whispering as she carries on trying to open her eyes, only trying to see where she is.

"How did I get here? ...And why am I talking to myself?"

The last thing I remember is sitting on the swing, wondering how long I should wait before going home. I shake my head slowly and feel around carefully, to see if there's anything I could use to help me get up. All I can feel is earth, which goes higher the further away it is from me. "What the hell..." I mutter under my breath as I deduct I'm in a crater or something similar. I reach up a slightly shaking hand and finally know why I can only see blackness. My eyes are frozen shut. ...My eyes...

_My eyes are frozen shut!? What the hell?!_

"You were too close." A boy's voice states. Had I been in any state to move around, I would have jumped about three feet in the air, or screamed. But I'm too tired and I can't be bothered.

"Who are you?" I ask flatly.

"That is irrelevant. You should be worrying about your wound."

He interrupts just as impassionately, and I fume silently, deciding to grudgingly listen to what the voice has to say (it'd better be good!).

I feel something warm brush against my eyelids, unfreezing them. I open my eyes to see something blue-green filling up my view. I blink away the blurriness and realise it is a pair of eyes. I also see that the boy has spiky white hair and that he's wearing traditional Japanese clothes. A shikakshuo, I think. He helps me to my feet and I see we _are_ in a small crater, still in the park.

"What happened?" I ask as I hastily let go of the handsome boy's hand as we start walking up the side of the crater.

The boy sighs and says, almost to himself, "Why is it all the people in Karakura town can see me?" He turns around and I see he's wearing something like a white floor-length cloak with the kanji ten written on it and a sword strapped on his back as he shouts a name.

"Matsumoto!"

Dude, is he old enough to have a sword? My God things have changed.

Almost instantly a tall woman with hair that isn't quite red or blond and rather large -ahem- assets and a more revealing version of -what's his name again?- the old-fashioned clothes, minus the cape thingy. She's also wearing a scarf. In the middle of summer.

"Yes Taichou?"

She exclaims exuberantly, smiling widely and looking at me with unrestrained curiosity.

"Matsumoto, I want you to get Hanatarou for this human's wounds."

She glances at me and then looks down at my leg, making me look down also, and we both notice the gash that is running from ankle to knee.

"Hai, Taichou!"

The woman disappears and I hesitantly poke at my wound, surprised I hadn't noticed before. I straighten up as the boy turns toward me and I notice, with some satisfaction I might add, that he's one of the few people that is only just taller than me, usually I arrive to peoples elbows or shoulders (in an incredibly aggravating way).

"What's your name, human?"

I ignore his tone and reply politely. "I'm Ayame Shizuka (A/N: last name first), and you speak as if you weren't one."

"One what?"

"A human."

-

Inwardly I curse at myself for my stupidity, I'm still, though I would never ever admit it, not quite used to interacting with humans on a daily basis and I keep forgetting to talk like one and behave as if I'm as old as I look.

"What else would I be but human?"

"Well, I would say you were a Shinigami."

_'How does she know about us?'_

Out loud I mask my emotions and say in a patronising tone, raising an eyebrow,

"Shinigami? You think that they really exist?"

Ayame shrugs, and I wonder if she too is not what she seems. She's dressed in normal human clothes, but one never knows if it's a gigai.

"Yes, of course. Who else gets wears black kimonos, isn't seen by most humans, has swords and gets rid of the Hollows that always seem to show up here?"

She knows too much. I drop the pretenses and eye her cautiously. Underneath the surface I notice she's smirking.

"How do you know?"

-

It doesn't really sound like a question, he says it in such a monotone. I ignore the slight look in his eyes telling me that he's wondering whether to hit me over the head and interrogate me. I sigh outwardly at his coldness and reply, wanting to punch this person,

"My father is...was a Shinigami."

"I see." Is his only answer.

He turns around and I cross my arms and stick my tongue out at him '_Stuck up brat.'_

It's at this point that Matsumoto reappears, with a boy who looks a bit older than me with black hair and a shy demeanour following.

-

I blink as I notice Shizuka's expression and then have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. _'Taichou is never gonna get a girlfriend... unless I help him'_, I think gleefully. The girl is just a bit shorter than Taichou, with long brown hair and green eyes. She's wearing knee-length jeans and a zip-up black jacket with a hood. She's also... hum, I would say _devastatingly _beautiful. _'Not that Taichou noticed'_, I think dryly. My Taichou is a certified genius, but he's completely oblivious to some things. Like girls, for example.

"Taichou, I brought Hanatarou."

The adorable, short, weirdly-haired boy who is my superior looks at Hanatarou and gestures toward Shizuka with his hand, still facing us. She jerks her chin in the direction of my captain, then rolls her eyes and shakes her head, and I giggle and wink at her. She blinks then smiles.

-

The person I gathered to be Hanatarou walks toward me slowly, like he thought I was scared of him... or something.

"Domo, eto... Would you allow me to heal your wound?"

I smile at him and Matsumoto, glad someone is being hospitable. "Of course you can!" I sit down slowly, my wounded leg stretched out in front of me. Hanatarou crouches down and examines it, asking how I got it. After answering ("Err, no clue.") I look around, noticing Shorty and Matsumoto talking quietly out of hearing range. _'Figures. That woman has a loud voice and they obviously don't trust me. I bet they knew who Dad was, but didn't know he had a daughter. Shorty must be her Taichou, and he must have been promoted after Dad left. Jesus, he doesn't look older than me. So, a child__ prodigy__. Bet he acts like that so people won't consider walking all over him.'_

Hanatarou looks up at me, finished with the gash, and notices me looking towards... the nameless twat, with a strange gleam in my eye.

"Ano...what's your name?"

He asks me.

"Ayame Shizuka, pleased to meet you."

"I'm Hanatarou Yamada. I'm sure Hitsugaya-Taichou has already asked you this, but how can you see us?"

So, his last name is Hitsugaya.

"My father is a Shinigami."

"Do you have a Zanpaktou then?"

"Yes."

"What level are you at?"

"I've just achieved Bankai (here I see Hanatarou's mouth drop open) but I think I'll improve my Kidō first because I suck with memorising incantations and stuff."

"You're so strong! Your father must be good to have trained you that much!"

"I think he was a Captain before he left."

"I see! How long ago did he leave?"

-

I turn around after telling Matsumoto about Ayame to see her and Hanatarou talking animatedly, Ayame's wound is healed and they're now sitting cross-legged facing each other. They seem to get along well, I'm surprised to see that Hanatarou isn't stuttering or saying "Ano..." or "Eto..." every three seconds. Nor was he being exceedingly polite. _'This girl has a strange effect on people. Maybe she can get Matsumoto to shut up. Now _that___would be a miracle… She is quite beautiful when she smiles.' _He thinks, and his eyes widen when he realises he hasn't thought that for a long time. The last person he classified as beautiful was Hinamori. Suddenly his view is filled with sparkling blue eyes.

"Taichou, It's not polite to stare, even if you are attracted to them."

"I'm attracted to who?"

I say, in a bad mood because thinking of her always makes me sad and upset, then angry and annoyed because I _should not_ be feeling so much, because she is gone and there is nothing I can do. I hate that I can't seem to forget her, and I hate myself for wanting to forget and for the relief that I would know I would feel if I did.

-

Matsumoto saw a vein pulse in her Taichou's temple and she couldn't help herself. "The girl you've just been staring at for about ten minutes."

Tōshirō's eyes widen and he looks away. "Have I really been staring that long?"

He mutters to himself, feeling idiotic.

"So you _have_been staring! Aw, that's so cute!"

"MATSUMOTO!"

-

I look to my left to see a fuming Hitsugaya and Matsumoto nowhere in sight. He calms down enough to notice me looking at him with a raised eyebrow and says indifferently, crossing his arms,

"Hanatarou, I suggest you return to wherever you are staying and if you see Matsumoto, tell her I'm looking for her. And that if she doesn't turn up soon she will be grounded to the office to do all the paperwork when we get back."

"Hai, Hitsugaya-Taichou!"

Hanatarou leaves, bowing quickly to _Hitsugaya-Taichou _(insert snobby posh voice) and waving to me. "Bye Shizuka-san!"

I wave and grin at him. I give Hitsugaya a side-ways glance and say, grinning evilly on the inside,

"So... Shorty, you must be captain. How did you manage that?"

Toushirou looks at me, a vein throbbing in his temple. Inwardly my grin widens, I must have hit a nerve. As I had known I would, usually short people are touchy about it.

"You're right. So that's Hitsugaya-Taichou to _you_."

"Iada, I think I'll call you Chibi-Kun." I swear the temperature just dropped. Hitsugaya is now glaring icily at me, and I have to admit, he looks hot. Which is really not fair. He probably doesn't even notice girls. _And_ he is a Shinigami.

"You will do no such thing"

"And why not? I think it suits you. It's kawaii!"

"If you call me kawaii or Chibi-kun again I may have to take you to Soul Society and send you to jail for being a renegade Shinigami."

He says it in such a voice I don't doubt him for a second, but I don't care if he does anyway.

"That won't work because you'll be even more embarrassed if I call you kawaii, Chibi-kun, in front of your co-captains."

-

I wonder why she looks completely unfazed and is grinning like Zaraki Kenpachi in a fight.

"...What will work then?"

I ask after a while. The girl lifts a hand to her chin, and her eyes are far too intelligent for my liking.

"What's your name?"

-

He looks at me for a long while, and I think he isn't going to answer.

"...Hitsugaya Tōshirō."

He finally replies.

"How long have you been a captain?"

"Two Shinigami years." (A/N: in this, one Shinigami year is forty human years roughly and I just made the two bit up, I have no idea)

"Hmm, what element is your Zanpaktou?"

"Ice and water."

"What's its name?"

"_His_name is Hyōrinmaru."

"That explains your weird hair then. Was it like that when you were human?"

"I doubt it."

"Is Matsumoto your fukutaichou?"

"Yes. And I'm not answering any more of your ridiculous questions. I need some information about you, or I _will_ have to classify you as a renegade Shinigami."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

I shrug and place my hands behind my head, although I'm nervous on the inside.

By now we've had got to the other side of the park and we're sitting under a tree, out of the sun.

"I want to know about your Zanpaktou, your family and why you are here in the real world."

"My Zanpaktou is fire and light, her name is Miharu. My father...died quite recently and he was a Shinigami, who never told me about my mother so I don't know if she was a human or what."

"Miharu? Is your Zanpaktou a bird? And you still haven't told me your level."

"Yes, she's a bird and I've achieved Bankai."

-

I send an incredulous look at the girl sitting next to me, staring into space.

_'She can't be lying though, assuming someone to be stronger than they are always ends badly. But she could be an idiot. That's the problem with being a prodigy, you think people are as clever as you and are thinking on the same level and then they do something stupid and you realise that that is their strength. They will do things without realising the consequences. But this one seems to have a decent sized brain. That will affect things, having Bankai. Informing Yamamoto is a given, I'm not going to lose my position for anyone. And seeing that the only way of getting out of a Captain job is death… Yamamoto will act quickly, either to execute her or recruit her and gain loyalty. He could send her to jail but I don't think so, he would see it as a waste and of she is as powerful as she says she could escape, making her a threat. What with still having open posts from Aizen's defection, she will probably be recruited. I hope she isn't working for Aizen. She could be, easily, but just as easily she could not. I hope Yamamoto doesn't treat her as such. Maybe I can ask him to recruit her into my Squad, to keep an eye on her… Wait, why my eye?'_

That question leads onto a few more, and then some strange conclusions. I shake my head as if to rid myself of my disturbing thoughts. I look at the girl again and notice that she's crying. Silently, no sobs, just tears. It's scary, the way she has an expressionless face, cold and hard eyes. I stare at her before asking uncertainly, panicking a little bit,

"Are... you okay?"

"I miss him." She states simply. She leans back against the tree, holding her head in her hands and still looking at the trees. Somehow, I know immediately what she means.

"I'm sorry. I can't really understand what you feel because I've never lost anyone that important to me. Well, except..."

I baulk, never having said her name out loud to anyone since her death. Least of all to a stranger I've known only for a few minutes. She looks at me sideways, still stoic, but sadness and sympathy creeping into those cold eyes.

"Except who?"

She asks, in a gentle voice I might not have thought her capable of.

"Hinamori." I say in something far too close to a whisper. I close my eyes briefly, biting the inside of my cheek so I wouldn't make any noise or say anything more.

-

Just her _name_ causes him to ache. I wonder who she was (or is). A family member, maybe. He looks too young to have a lover, but if she died very recently…

"Lair."

"…What?" He turns towards me very slowly, eyes opening as he does. Every syllable is full of fury, and his eyes are glaring daggers at me.

-

How _dare_ she say that I am a liar? She's getting on my bad side already. Then I notice that she's looking at me with this sad soft smile that made my icy heart want to break. Or at least crack a little.

"You do understand."

I pause and think, and then grace her with a small smile.

"You're the first to prove me wrong."

"Really? You must be pretty clever then."

"They call me the child prodigy." And I can't help but roll my eyes.

She laughs, but there is something in her eyes that I don't like. "Child prodigies aren't meant to be modest or have a sense of humor."

"I don't usually. It's just you. You're weird. Freak."

I say calmly.

"I'm what!? That's a bit rich coming from you!"

-

I watch excitedly from behind the tree. My captain, _the _child prodigy, _the _Hitsugaya Tōshirō, is sitting under a tree smiling. With a girl!! She had noticed them when they were sitting down and had started to listen to the conversation avidly. _'Taichou told her about Hinamori! He's never even told me about how she died, and he _never_ mentions her name. He must really like this girl. I can use her as blackmail to get out of doing paperwork! He he... I'm hungry.' _ I decide to return to Orihime's house and make something to eat. Or even better, make Orihime make something! _'Maybe chocolate carrots, the jelly fish, and peanut butter ice-cream! That girl makes some wonderful desserts. Maybe I'll get her to cook dinner for Taichou and his soon-to-be girlfriend! But Taichou doesn't like Orihime's food. I wonder why. But then again, I have never seen him eat... well, anything (how does he do that? We need food if we're in the real world). He only drinks tea... Aha! Watermelons! He loves watermelons! Well, Hinamori told me he loves watermelons. Maybe if Orihime makes something with watermelons he'll eat it! ...Chocolate watermelons! Perfect!'_

-

Back at the tree, Tōshirō and Shizuka are still talking about this and that ("You never told me who Hinamori is." "And I have to tell you?") when Toushirou notices it's almost sunset. He looks at Shizuka from the corner of his eye and says, wanting to go somewhere and not going to let her go anywhere,

"Do you want to come with me to watch the sunset?"

She looks at him, surprised. Tōshirō had never occurred to me to be the kind of person to watch the sunset. But then again, I don't know the guy at all.

"Yeah!"

Tōshirō gets up, walking towards his favourite spot. He turns his head toward Shizuka. "Can you do shūnpo?"

She answers by appearing far ahead of him, turning around to yell "Come on slowpoke! Can't you keep up?" Which, of course, provokes Tōshirō and it turns into a childish race. They arrive panting at Tōshirō's favourite spot just before the sun starts setting. Tōshirō ignores Shizuka while making sure she's not going anywhere, walking ahead to the railing and jumping over it so he could lean against it. Shizuka follows, copying Tōshirō and sitting not two inches away from him, knowing it would piss him off. Sure enough, she gets an icy glare as soon as she sits down.

"No need to be frigid, Chibi-kun."

"I thought you said you would stop calling me that."

"Nothing gets past you, does it?"

"..."

"Fine, I'll call you Tōshirō."

"You know what's really annoying about you?"

"No, do tell."

"Nothing seems to annoy you so I can't get back at you. Even if I call you Shizuka you'll probably be _happy_."

"You worked that out all by yourself did you?" She grinned as she receives another one of his trademark glares. "Yeah, you're right. So don't bother trying (AN: she means don't bother to try annoy her)."

"The sun's setting." The captain states quietly.

They both turn to look at the beautiful sunset of orange, purple and pink. They didn't talk for awhile until the sun had well and truly set, and the streetlamps were on. Tōshirō turns to Shizuka, intending to ask her a question, when he noticed that she had fallen asleep. He had to move quickly to stop her from falling off the railing face first, and she ended up leaning her head against his shoulder and his arm around her waist. He sighs, but blushes, glad it was dark and the she was asleep. He looked down at her, contemplating whether or not to wake her up. But she looked so peaceful, he decided he would take her home...He cursed _'I don't even know where she lives.' _He sighed. _'I guess I have to take her to Inoue's then. I don't even want to think about what Matsumoto will say. I'm never going to hear the end of it,' _He looked down at her beautiful sleeping face again._ 'but for some reason, I think she's worth all the teasing. And I'll just threaten Matsumoto with more paperwork, and Inoue's too nice to tease anyone anyway.' _He lifted her up bridal style, shūnpoing quickly, thinking about the ruckus it would cause if the humans saw a girl floating down the street. (A/N: Tōshirō is still in Shinigami form, while Shizuka is in a physical body) He arrived at Orihime's and opened the door with his foot, slipping in quietly. Matsumoto and Orihime were conversing (more like squealing) loudly, talking about... watermelons and chocolate (_'Oh dear lord, god in heaven'_).

He opened the door to the kitchen, careful not to bang Shizuka's head on the doorway, and said in a dangerously low tone: "Matsumoto, I expect you to arrange a futon for Shizuka, and if I hear one word of this when we're back in Soul Society, you will never leave the office again."

"Hai Taichou, but what happened?"

"We were watching the sunset at the railing when she fell asleep."

"Naruhodo-des." Matsumoto lifts Shizuka out of her captains arms and he saunters back outside, probably to go sit on the roof. Matsumoto turned to Inoue giving her an 'I told you so' look, then turned and carried the girl to the spare bedroom, laying her on Tōshirō's futon. _'Taichou hardly ever uses his bed, he's always on the roof. Besides, if he does want to sleep here, he'll have to sleep with her!' _Matsumoto grins mischievously. _'Tomorrow is going to be so fun.'_

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The next morning I find myself in a comfy futon (_'I must've fallen asleep after the sunset.')_. Too bad it's in a quite unsettling room.

Now, I have nothing against pink, but honestly... Is so much of it really necessary? Even the posters are all pink orientated, along with the bed cover, walls, carpet, little collections of stones and figurines...

Well, at least I know I'm in a woman's house.

Sitting up, I inwardly thank the gods that I'm still dressed in what I was the day before. No-one wants to see underneath these clothes, I assure you. And plus, that's quite embarrassing. Falling asleep and then having to be carried home and undressed.

...Aw shit, he had to carry me home.

Standing and stretching, I notice how hot it is, and I take off my jacket, leaving myself with a white and red top on underneath.

Walking over to the door and opening it, I come face to face with a pretty young redhead woman, who reminds me of... Matsumoto. The reason is sitting on her torso. She has one hand raised, and when she sees me her face breaks into a kind smile.

"Hello! I'm Inoue Orihime, pleased to meet you!"

I smile back at her (it's infectious, what can I say).

"I'm Ayame Shizuka, pleased to meet you too. Is this your home?"

As we start walking, Inoue, who is smiling with her eyes closed, makes an affirmative noise in the back of her throat.

"Are you a Shinigami permanently stationed here?"

"No, I'm a human with special powers. I was exposed to reiatsu for a prolonged amount of time and it affected me. I can reverse time and space with these."

She lifts a hand up for the explanation, and then touches one of the clips holding her hair away from her face affectionately, smiling, and I come to the conclusion that even before being the medium for controlling her powers they were important to her.

As soon as she says it, I realise I know her. I've never met her before now, but I know her.

"Reverse time and space? That's pretty cool!"

"Arigato!"

She blushes and smiles at the compliment, eyes closing again in happiness as she smiles widely.

We arrive at the kitchen, and she turns to me, raising a finger to her mouth.

"Eto...what would you like for breakfast?"

I pause, unused to people actually asking me such questions.

"Umm, what're you having?"

I listen in astonishment as she rattles off a long list of foods that sound inedible. Especially together.

And I just know I won't be able to eat any of it.

Inoue carries on talking even though it's now about random things, as she starts making something weird(leek and bean paste on toast...I think). The sounds of the door opening and two pairs of feet making their way towards us can be heard.

"We're back!"

Calls a singsong voice, and I almost clap my hands together and raise my eyes to the ceiling.

_'Thank the lord. They must be able to help me.'_

The two people I expect appear and I shoot them a 'save me!' look.

Matsumoto looks confused.

Hitsugaya raises his eyebrows and sighs. Then he shrugs his shoulders.

I grin at him and give a thumbs up.

Matsumoto watches this interaction with much interest, still unaware of what we're talking about, but excited nonetheless. She exchanges a glance with Inoue and winks, and then ushers them both out of the room to peer around the doorframe at the two teens.

Well, teen and... A several centuries old mature and sensible Shinigami who looks like one (and acts like it too...occasionally).

It's going to be a beautiful relationship.

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_'I can't believe it's been two weeks. The amount of unconditional trust I've been given is amazing...well, even though they've interrogated me thoroughly several times and I'm never given too much control of a situation or time alone. But I really don't mind, they've even mentioned that they might take me back to Seretei with them when the mission is over... And... weird things have happened.'_

Strange moments, mainly when my hand accidentally touches his or we sit next to each other or when he looks at me with a face that's different from usual.

Ignoring the urge to jump and squeal with joy, I come back to my senses and stare in horror at the name written in pink at the top of the DVD case.

Need to escape, _now_.

Saying good night sweetly to the girls of the house, aside from yours truly, I head off to bed.

Ikakku and Yumichika left ages ago, terrified by the idea of letting the girls pick a movie to watch ('_So_ unbeautiful...' 'Meh, I wanna go beat up a Hollow.'), so they left. Tōshirō is on the roof, I presume, watching the sky. Maybe he even left to go for the railing.

Arriving at the much desired sleeping place, I raise a hand to my mouth to stifle a yawn.

_'I'm so tired! I don't even know why...I didn't do much today, just the usual...'_

I think as I snuggle into my futon, still in the pink room. Orihime and Rangiku are watching a chick flick, something I'm not too keen on.

I frown as I spot the sliver...okay, wide and large stripe of light crossing the room. I can hear scandalised gasps and surprised squeals and excited exclamations from the living room.

God help me...

Getting up, I shut the door and return to bed.

I don't remember falling asleep, as always, but it's almost immediate.

-

Somewhere above her head, a certain icy captain is shivering with cold, eyelids drooping with sleepiness. He groans lowly as he hears more irritating sounds from his lieutenant and landlord. He realises he'll have to actually sleep in his futon. Usually he would never be troubled by temperature, but he assumes it's connected to the fact that he hasn't slept in five days.

Leaping down, he lands silently on the windowsill and slides open the window, stepping down and stopping when he realises there is someone already in his bed.

_'Oh, of course, Ayame... I should have figured that out before (where else was she going to be sleeping, you idiot).'_

Sighing, I'm about to go back onto the roof again when there's a particularly strong gust of very cold and biting wind.

Grumbling, I close the window after me and carefully lay down on top of the covers, as far away from the sleeping girl as possible.

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Here you go...improved, I think. I made a lot of time pass in between the penultimate and last err, dividers. Because... I mean, honestly, look at what happened in the very beginning of chapter _two_, and we know that it's pretty damn improbable (getting frigid little Chibi-kun to fall for someone is hard enough).


	2. Culmination

Disclamer: I own Bleach only in my wildest dreams

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I open my eyes to sunlight streaming through the window. It's so warm. I try to move around, thinking I must still be really tired, because I can't move my right arm. I turn my head (she was looking up at the ceiling), and my eyes open in shock as I see Tōshirō lying on the covers, arm around my waist. I'm mere inches away from his face. I stare at him and then quickly look over him (the bed is against the wall next to the window and Tōshirō is closer to the door than her), to see if anyone is nearby, thankfully no one is. I lean back down to Tōshirō, examining his face. He is so much hotter when he's sleeping, when he's not glaring or frowning. He looks so... err, peaceful. The only things missing are his teal eyes. I look down, seeing how his left arm is on the covers over my waist, his right arm under me and the covers and my arms are curled up against me in between. I frown, how did this happen?

A thought strikes me (this had better not be a prank) and I look down again and notice we're both fully dressed and he isn't wearing his Shinigami uniform. _'Either this is just his gigai, his gigai with a modified soul in it or he's in his gigai.' _ I can't decide which is better (or worse).

_'...Probably the third option. Well, it could easily have been worse.' _

I decide to see what would happen if I try to get up. I slowly lift myself of the bed, well, I do until Tōshirō tightens his hold around me, effectively stopping any chances of leaving and proving that that gigai is not empty. I start panicking slightly, wondering what the hell to do when I get another flash of inspiration. I grin, deciding to wake him up and then pretend to be asleep. _'He'll be _so _embarrassed.' _

I refrain from laughing as I get back into my previous position with my face really close to his, then, deciding to go a little further I slowly move my arms up to rest around his neck. He pulls me even closer. It feels like my face is on fire. I calm myself down _('dead kitten, dead kitten...')_ as I close my eyes and slowly start to breathe, settling into a rhythm that sounds like I'm asleep. I then use my hand at the back of his neck to pinch him hard. I grin inwardly as I hear Tōshirō yelp in pain. Then I concentrate on making it seem like I'm asleep.

-

Oh. My. Soul. Shizuka's face is not an inch from mine. What...

I remember clambering into my bed, so far away from her I was almost falling over the edge. I never thought we would end up this close, with my arms around her waist and hers around my neck. Her eyes are closed and she's breathing deeply and regularly. _'She's asleep or pretending. I could... But I don't want to... But it is the most effective way to check if she's asleep... And... And... Oh for God's sake admit it man, you are attracted to her and been acting like a goof all week!' _I close my eyes, weighing the pros and cons. Then, keeping my eyes closed, I lean in and kiss her gently. I open my eyes the tiniest bit, to see her reaction.

-

My eyes fly open. Tōshirō is kissing me! I look at his closed eyes before closing mine and tightening my hold around his neck and leaning into the kiss. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder what the _hell_ is going on? Is he asleep or does _he _want to embarrass _me _or something?

Maybe... maybe it means something?

Oh crap. I never actually meant for this to happen...

-

I _knew _it. She is definitely awake and kissing me back. After a moment's hesitation, I run my tongue over her lips, and she opens them immediately. And what does that mean? When we finally pull back to breathe, I move back a little more for some space and it really is too hot for this. After a while of just looking at each other she says, raising an eyebrow,

"You just stole my first kiss."

"You don't seem too upset. That was my first kiss too, you know. And that's what you get for trying to trick me."

"That's what you get for being in my bed!" She retorts, affronted.

I lean in and kiss her again, and when we're breaking apart I say calmly, though still baffled as to what happened, and why the _hell _I just did that,

"Don't say anything to Matsumoto."

"Aw, you embarrassed?"

That was very flippant for someone who was just pouting like that, It hurts a little, and it's confusing. I don't know many people who would sort a 'stealing of the first kiss' into the 'it means nothing' category.

"No, I mean I don't want them to know. Also, I don't know if I'm ever going to see you again after this mission. I don't know anything."

"I'm coming with you to Soul Society."

My eyes widen and I looked at her. I hadn't expected her to remember or take up on that offer. Especially when Matsumoto said it, surely she wouldn't have taken it seriously? "What about your life here? We don't even know what Genryuusai-sama will say. He could execute you or-"

"I haven't done anything wrong technically. I have never had any harmful intentions regarding Soul Society and I'm not much of a threat. It's true that my father was a renegade Shinigami, but he's dead. I never came here of my free will, I don't know anything about myself except my recent past, I have nothing here, and execution is better that losing you, the best thing that has happened to me in a long time."

She looks nervous throughout the entire speech, looking at me and shifting.

I'm surprised at her outburst and confession. The best thing...? What? I reach forward hold her close and she curls up against me. It feels nice, nicer than I expected.

"We should get up." I say, and as if on cue, our stomachs rumble loudly. We laugh quietly and pull apart to get out of the futon.

-

I straighten the covers and my clothes. I look back at him before opening the door and saying quietly: "You should know that I don't know what I am. But I've been able to do Shinigami form for as long as I can remember and this isn't a gigai."

He approaches me and eyes me and obviously sees how pitifully scared I am of his reaction.

-

_'I will never care about what you are, does it matter either way?' _

"Then you're a substitute Shinigami. Like Kurosaki Ichigo. His mother was human and his father a Shinigami that lost his powers. Not that it matters to me," My expression turns thoughtful as hers turns relived. "Maybe if you go into Shinigami form and kill your real body and come to Soul Society you might have turned into a real Shinigami without losing your memories."

She smiles widely, gratefully. "That sounds good. Maybe I'll lie about the achieving bankai thing so I have a better chance of being recruited into your squad."

"That sounds good too."

I laugh at the look on her face, incredulous eyebrow raised at my response, and open the bedroom door.

"You wouldn't know how to cook normal food, would you?" I ask as we make our way towards the kitchen. She pauses, and then nods.

"I guess. The little I can do is probably better than whatever Matsumoto or Orihime would cook up."

We arrive at the kitchen and she walks over to the fridge, to see if there was any food. She finds another weird mix of ingredients and what looks like two slices of watermelon covered in chocolate and raisins wrapped in cling film. She picks them out and turns around towards me, and hold the them up and asks: "By asking if I could cook normally, do you mean food that looks halfway edible?"

I laugh and reply, eyeing the weird looking things. What a way to waste watermelon. "Yes, exactly. I've been nearly starving myself for these past days... Is that watermelon covered in chocolate?"

"I think so. I'm not quite sure. Let me try some, if I die you must promise to cremate my body."

"Okay, okay."

I sit down at the table with her sitting opposite me, one hand supporting my chin. She gingerly unwraps one piece and takes the smallest bite possible. I don't say how impressed I am that she's willing to face her doom. She chews slowly, and her eyes widen and she says, staring down at _it_ (the abomination) now,

"This isn't actually that bad, you know." I don't answer, I just get up, pick up the small bin in the corner, and walk back over to her.

"You can spit it out now." She complies and throws the slices in too.

"Bacon and eggs sound good to you?"

She asks as she wipes her chin and stands up.

"As long as my eggs are well done."

She laughs and walks back over to the fridge, taking out the needed ingredients and finding pots and pans.

-

A short while later, the kitchen is filled with the mouth-watering smell of cooking bacon. I walk over to the table with two mats in hand, placing one in front of the waiting Hitsugaya and another across from him. I then look for cutlery, finding some in a small drawer, and placing those on the table too. I then dish up the food and put it on the table. I sit down opposite Hitsugaya and watch as he slowly takes a bite. I eat much faster and finish before he does. I put my plate to one side and look at him eating with enthusiasm.

"I guess you approve then."

"Well, it's edible." I kick him under the table and grin.

"Don't think I haven't figured out that you can't cook." He finishes his food and put his plate to one side, like me. He leaned his chin on his hand again.

"What makes you think that?"

"Several things," I start ticking them off on my fingers, feeling smug, "You made me cook, you said that you've been starving yourself meaning you haven't been cooking for yourself and, I quote you, 'You wouldn't know how to cook normal food then?', indicating that you can't cook normal food either and if I had said no you would have probably said something like we'll just have to survive without."

He looked thoughtful and scrutinises me with fake suspicion. "You know, it took Matsumoto three years to figure it out."

I laugh so hard I almost cry. He glares at me. He then changes the topic and says icily: "Speaking of Matsumoto, where is she?"

"I'm right here, Taichou!"

We both turn. Matsumoto and Inoue stand in the doorway, both of them sporting a ridiculous amount of shopping bags.

"Where have you been?"

Hitsugaya asks, frowning.

"We went shopping! Inoue needed a new top and I needed some make-up!"

Matsumoto bounces up and down happily. Hitsugaya rolls his eyes.

"You already have stupid amount of cosmetics."

"Demo, Taichou! they're all out-of-date!"

"You brought some more before we left, claiming that they don't have good make-up here."

"But that was hardly any!"

"It was two whole baskets!"

He's glaring at her, and Inoue has gone to her room, supposedly to try on her new top. She left all of the bags she was holding except one in the doorway, and I realised they were _all_ Matsumoto's. I laugh, breaking the tension and causing the temperature to rise. They both look at me like I'm crazy. "You argue more than a married couple," I chuckle.

Matsumoto blinks and then starts laughing with me. But Tōshirō doesn't look so pleased. While Matsumoto was doubled up laughing, clutching her stomach, he gestures for me to come and sit next to him. I approach slowly, laughing all the while. He was still hotter when he glared. When I get close enough he pulls me into his lap, places his arms around my waist and whispers, sounding devious,

"Well, you better not get jealous, Shizuka." Then he kisses me. After regaining my breath, I kiss back and neither of us notice that Matsumoto had stopped laughing and was looking at us like an alien had landed. Then she quietly slips a camera out of her Shinigami robes and takes a picture of us kissing. We both brake apart at the same time and look at Matsumoto grinning like the Cheshire cat. Tōshirō was the first to recover and he growls menacingly: "Matsumoto, give me that camera _right now_."

I glance at him sideways, deciding to get my own back. I get an idea and I grin at Matsumoto, mouthing a secret message. She carries on grinning back when she understands and nods discreetly. I hold up one hand, three...two...one...now! I suddenly grab Tōshirō's face and turn it towards me, starting to kiss him passionately. Toushirou forgets Matsumoto and starts kissing back, pleased when I insist on opening his mouth. Matsumoto clicks off picture after picture, now having turned off the flash. As we break apart she does one more, then turns it off and takes out the memory card. She the hides the little chip in her robes and grins as Tōshirō says to me, clearly irritated but with shortened breath all the same,

"If you were trying to distract me, it worked."

I just smirk and peck him on the cheek, and then jerk my head towards Matsumoto.

"You might want to get the camera back now." I stand up and brush myself off and sit down in another chair as I watch Tōshirō chase Matsumoto around the front yard. He finally catches her, and she hands him the camera, looking regretful and near some large fake tears. I smirk, knowing full well that she's taken out the memory chip, as I told her to. Tōshirō stamps on the camera, too pissed to check and see if the chip was there or not. Matsumoto walks back in, giving me a thumbs up before sitting down in a recently vacated seat.

"So... You and Taichou huh?"

"I guess so."

Matsumoto watches me, a little smile on her face. Then she frowns.

"But you're staying here right?"

I'm about to reply, seeing where this is going when I'm cut off.

"No, she's coming with us."

Tōshirō stands in the doorway, holding the remains of the camera in his hands before he throws them in the bin. Effectively covering up the chocolate watermelons. I jump up as he walks over and push him down before sitting on his lap. I grin with fake bewildered innocence as he glares at me and I turn my head away slightly to wink discreetly at Matsumoto. She giggles.

"You know something Taichou?" He looks at her icily, still mad as he asks 'What?'. Matsumoto smiles widely, reminding me of a cat.

"I think I'm going to get along well with your girlfriend." Then she leans in, eyes sparkling, and asks, no warning, "Have you got to second base yet?" Tōshirō, loosing his coolly furious demeanor, blushes, even if it's only slightly, whereas I can tell I'm able to impersonate a red traffic light. I hide my face against Tōshirō's shoulder.

"Matsumoto!"

He shouts, and I'm so glad he didn't stutter.

"I'll take that as a yes! Yay! How--"

"No!" Me and Toushirou shout at the same time, as I lift my head. She looks disappointed and pouts. Then she gets as excited as before and goes: "So did you skip straight to third base?!"

"_**MAT-SU-MO-TO!**_"

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W00t! S'over! I changed this one quite a bit too, as before this was when Shizuka and Matsumoto properly meet, and Shizuka didn't know where she was. I took away the translations again, but you're all still welcome to ask ^^.


	3. Traitor

Rewritten chapter 3! I hope you enjoy ^^

Disclaimer: There is not a chance in hell that I own bleach

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When Matsumoto arrived on the scene, everyone was training down in Urahara's basement. Again.

There wasn't much reason anymore for many of the people in the basement to even be in the real world. It is merely a routine check-up; occasionally a Hollow would be attracted to either Ichigo or one of the people he affected (actually, the reiatsu level had heightened considerably once the Shinigami came, but no one pointed that out). The reason a captain - and his lieutenant - along with two seated officers need to be in a now normal town, when a human-Shinigami hybrid capable of bankai and several others who managed to infiltrate Soul Society and then Seretei, live there, isn't quite clear yet. Yamamoto was keeping his cards close to his chest.

Sado and Renji had decided to train together anyway. Rukia still trained with Orihime. Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Ikakku and Yumichika were on patrol so they didn't train at all. Ichigo varied between training with Urahara or the Vizards (or not at all, he has homework). Ishida trained by himself, Hanatarou was here only in the case that he needed to heal, and Tatsuki trained with Yoruichi. (A/N: Tatsuki was also affected by Ichigo, she has powers similar to those of a Shinigami, and she's good at hand-to-hand combat.) Matsumoto was lucky, today everyone was here. She practically randown the ladder, holding an envelope with some photos in it of a certain Taichou and his secret girlfriend. He had threatened her with worse than paperwork if she told anyone, but, she thought excitedly, it was worth it (even if she did feel a little twinge of guilt). She was showing them anyway.

Matsumoto arrives at the bottom, _'finally!'_, and, after running, stops about ten feet from the ladder. Then she shouts:

"Everyone! I have something to sho-o-ow you!"

None of them had ever seen her this excited and they all gathered round, even Ishida. She was glowing with excitement as she screams, well nearly, more like says loudly,

"Taichou has a girlfriend!"

Everyone's mouths hang open in disbelief except Urahara's (who is never surprised by anything). Making a small 'o' and 'oooh' sound, holding his fan over his mouth and feigning surprise,

"Really?"

"Yes! And I have proof!" She says proudly. With a flourish she sits down, making everyone sit down across from her in a semicircle. Matsumoto looks down for second before assuring herself that her Taichou would forgive her. Pulling out the photos, saying as she does so,

"Now, I know you all want to know who exactly is mad enough to see my Taichou," a chuckle and affirmative noise here and there, "but, I was asked not to tell anyone. So, please keep this to yourselves. But I just had to show someone!"

She spread out the photos on the basement floor, everyone leaning in.

Her sitting on his lap, them asleep with their arms around each other, and them... err... (_'Whoa!' 'Lucky little...' 'They look underage for that sort of thing!' '...Ew.'_)

Everyone was stunned into silence until it was broken by Hanatarou, who whispered, open mouth barely seeming to move,

"Ayame Shizuka."

The name they had all been thinking makes them blink, and then look back at the photos and start talking at once, straining to keep their voices low,

"Oh my God..."

"How long have they been going out?"

"I don't believe it!"

"Kawaii!"

"How far have they _got_?!"

"Those two? Wow..."

Matsumoto smirks at the reaction _her_ photos got, and then calms them all down by putting a finger to her lips and saying:

"Now, this is confidential, but I have a feeling I'll be able to tell you guys... Right?"

A wink and not-so-subtle threat.

Vigorous nods all round.

She smiles sweetly and then tries to answer every question, putting a finger to the corner of her mouth in thought.

"Well, they've been going out a week, and these were taken on the second day before Taichou destroyed the camera, I took out the memory card and had these developed. I don't know how far they've got, but when I asked them about second base they both turned redder than a ripe tomato (everyone laughed quietly at this, she grinned and continued:) and when I asked if they had skipped to third base I barely escaped with my life."

Louder laughter, and then it suddenly turned into either complete silence and a scared expression, or a nervous chuckle and slightly horrified look.

"Funnily enough, I do remember asking you not to tell anyone, Matsumoto-fukutaichou." The last bit is drawn out and every syllable rang with suppressed anger.

Matsumoto, who had frozen at the sudden change, arranged her face into a pleading doe-eyed one and turned around slowly. Her Taichou was standing at the foot of the ladder, staring at her and then flicking his eyes around the ring. Everyone (especially the girls) was looking at him in a new light, which he didn't like at all. He suddenly steps out of his gigai and advances toward Matsumoto, very slowly, the reiatsu rising around him coordinated with his steps. Everyone rises and backs away slowly, the photos forgotten on the floor. A blur arrives at them. The form leans down to pick them up. With this movement, the white sword stapped across her back with red and orange designs becomes very noticable, and the fact that she has configured robes, probably to make moving around easier. Leisurely straightening back up, she eyes the photos. An eyebrow raises about a particular one.

"Matsumoto... You never told me about this one."

She turns it around, holding it below her eyes, which are amused and twinkling.

Everyone had recognized her as the one and only Ayame Shizuka, the girl with a mysterious history who they had met a few weeks ago, Hitsugaya Tōshirō's girlfriend. They began wondering if she had her head on right.

"Shizuka, hand those over."

A few blink at the use of her first name, and then think that it should be expected. From anyone other than perhaps the Tenth Division Captain, which is why they're surprised.

"Nah, I think I'll frame them."

She says calmly, looking over the top of them, eyes challenging as she smirks.

"You will _not_."

He says, half horrified, half... pleased? She sticks her tongue out at him, putting on a childish voice, "Oh yes I will."

He sighs and pauses. Then he shuunpos over to her and makes a grab for them, looking annoyed as she steps backwards, following it up with a jump onto the top of a rock pillar. A chase ensues, ending with the captain finally catching the poor girl who for some reason doesn't look scared or annoyed. To a few impressed expressions and guffaws, she grins and suddenly latches onto the captain, restricting his movement. She discreetly holds out the envelope of photos behind her back.

Matsumoto hesitates a second before creeping forward. She snatches the photos and returns to the group. Everyone looks, tilting their heads or making quiet 'aw's, at the couple rolling on the floor as she asks Urahara to hide them in the shop. And make some copies for everyone, some to be framed to hang on walls. And to make posters. Urahara agrees that it's an excellent idea and saunters away with Yoruichi following.

"I can't believe you managed that." Tōshirō states in irritation as the two walk back, rubbing his neck as Shizuka swings her arms and puts on an exaggerated innocent expression that's not believable.

"No, it's just my... ah, expertise," He looks at her sideways, glaring icily. "There's no need to be jealous about the fact that I am a genius." He grimaces and almost blushes, the very light redness on the tips of his ears only noticed by Matsumoto. "Especially at kissing... Or maybe that's you." She adds for good measure.

"Really?" Ichigo guffaws, looking incredulous.

"How would you know? Have you ever kissed him?" She raises a finger and points it to the side of Tōshirō's head.

Ichigo snorts and then twists his face in disgust. "Why would I wanna kiss _him_?"

"Well I don't know... But your sword does weigh alot, more at the top where it's thicker, doesn't it?"

Ichigo's confused expression and head-scratching movement makes most laugh.

"Burn, Ichigo, burn."

Tatsuki says in between chuckles.

"Oi, Tōshirō, why don't we go to the park?"

"Why should I?" Tōshirō asks almost sulkily, if a captain of his stature could sulk.

Leaning in close, she whispers in his ear, making him look surprised and then stoic once more (although his ears are red again, his lieutenant notices).

"Let's go then."

He crosses his arms and looks away, making Shizuka smile and start pulling him along.

"I think Taichou just got bribed with something censored."

Most laugh and nod in agreement.

"Lets go and spy!"

"What about training?"

"Screw training! I want to know what they're doing!"

"Seconded!"

"Eto... I don't know if you guys have thought about this, but, um, wouldn't that be invading something private?"

Inoue's quiet, timid voice somehow cuts through the loud, excited voices, making them look at her incredulously and then continue. She frowns, deciding to try another way.

"If you go, I'll tell."

Silence.

Wide eyes and open mouths facing her scrunched up expression as she crosses her arms and turns her head, looking indignant.

"I wouldn't like having people spying on me when it's the last few days I have in the Real World with my boyfriend." She turns and eyes them, sad. "Don't you realise? She will stay here, or go, and face possible imprisonment, death, or exile."

The redhead sighs in pity, turning and walking away, climbing up the ladder.

The others look at each other uneasily, some shifting uncomfortably. They didn't like thinking about things like that.

And they feel sutupid for not thinking of that before.

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"Would you mind explaining what it is you are finding so terribly amusing?"

"You don't intimidate me, you know. I just think you look hotter when you glare at me like that."

He rolls his eyes and sighs. "You're hopeless."

"Yeah, yeah I am."

She agrees amiably, not looking insulted at all. He looks up, eyeing the Sakura trees. He wasn't one for walks in the park, he only knew his way around this one because it was part of his patrol area. He sighs again and shakes his head. He knew this was going to happen. The only reason he hadn't strangled his lieutenant on the spot was because he had heard her ask them to 'keep it to themselves'. Even though he was a captain, he actually didn't have much jurisdiction over the officers of other divisions; he could control them to a certain extent, tell them where to patrol… Enforce punishment if they broke a law, (such as revealing their true nature to a human) but they also had to send messages back to Seretei and their respective captains. He just hopes none of them will consider it an important or relevant enough development worth mentioning. If they start going around screaming about it, he has ideas for revenge, but everything would be easier if the others would just respect his privacy.

Looking back down, he notices he's almost at the end of the path, now looking out onto a green field where some people are playing football. He spots some faces his mind says are familiar, and he blinks in recognition as he realises it's Kurosaki's group. The girl herself isn't there, only her four male friends.

Leaning down, he speaks quietly into Shizuka's ear.

"The four boys there, don't let them see us. They will recognise me."

Inconspicuously glancing over, she then nods, taking a sharp left, heading for a pathway winding into the trees. He follows, walking next to her.

"We should probably get back soon."

Tilting her head questioningly for a second, she thinks and then almost smirks.

"Ah. We're probably not going to be alone for much longer."

"Exactly."

Shizuka looks up. It's almost sunset, the sky is already painted prettily. "We could go and watch the sunset."

Glancing at her then up, he replies that it would be a good idea, and starts leading her off from the path to cut through the woods.

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Matsumoto leans her right side against the tree, placing her left hand on the trunk near her waist. She smiles, because she knows exactly where they are going, and because of how predictable they are.

The two like reliving their first day together, even though they would never admit it and she knew much better than to say it out loud. The immature way they are acting is also a huge part of it. Her captain knows the risks better than most, having had an interrogation about that very subject. He had left with his head held high and Yamamoto almost blushing, so no-one questioned him again. (Neither did they mention the words 'young' or 'hormones' from fear of getting third-degree frostbite.)

_'You both think that it's too good to be true, don't you? That's why you're not getting to close to each other in case it won't last. You're both so scared that you'll be forced apart, by Yamamoto, by fate or destiny, by death you're not sure, you're just waiting for what you think is the inevitable,'_ She sighs, knowing they are both too clever to be blinded in love. Sometimes she wishes her Taichou could just stop worrying and enjoy things. Sometimes she wants him to step down from his position, but she knows it will never happen. (_'I'd never do the paperwork and there's no where else to go, we both know that. You become a captain, you die a captain.'_)

_'If you get executed, Taichou will follow you, even though you might not expect it and he would never mention it. If you get imprisoned, he will break you free and escape to the human world, shirking his responsibilities and the rules he dedicates himself to everyday. If you are recruited, he will visit you constantly and push Yamamoto until you become one of his subordinates. I just... hope that you end up together. We need a Captain Commander and he needs someone other than me to be there. I'm not enough, I know I'll never be. He's so lonely... And while I'm there, he's lost too many to be able to realise that.' _She looks up at the sky, and whispers.

"Fix him, be there for him... take _her_ place," She looks back down and eyes a scar on her forearm. "Goodness knows, you deserve it more than she does."

She murmurs, thinking back to how horribly wrong things managed to go, how destroyed her captain was about it all, and how she will never be able to forgive the person that started it all or her friend, the one who made things so much worse when she could have made things so much better. (Sometimes she wonders what would have happened if she had just _thought _for a second, and trusted the right person... But this was, after all, only a dream about the past, which obviously could not be fufilled, because the moment has already been and gone) She sighs, pulling herself upright. After a second's consideration, she starts to wander off down the recently vacated path, not knowing where it leads, that not mattering because she doesn't care.

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The scar I just made up, but I think you will probably be able to figure out where I'm implying she got it and who gave it to her, right? Yes? No? Oh well, more mystery for you (hehe). Hope you enjoyed, blah blah blah.

Until next time!


	4. Family

Rewritten chapter 4! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: How many times do I have to repeat this? -Sulky face- I don't own Bleach. -Pouts-

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It's impossible to be anymore nervous than I already am, but I'm still finding a way to think of things in the worst possible way. Tōshirō's mission is ending tommorrow, and therefore he's returning to Soul Society with his report and I'm going back with him. I'm not quite sure of what is going to happen. I am sure that things are never going to be the same again, obviously. For a second I try to distract myself and ponder what Seretei and Rukongai looks like, I had only been told their... purpose, so to speak.

_'Chickie, just let it happen.__Just let things happen, watch them and don't intervene. Just let it happen. Accept it and don't worry. Just be...detached. Be like a narrator, watching things from a third person perspective. Protect yourself from everything with disinterest, like it does not matter._

_'Like Tōshirō?'_

_'Yes, just like that. Let... Make nothing matter to you.'_

_'...Except when I'm with him. I should explain, so he'll understand and know that whatever I might say or do, I'm still the same.'_

Miharu pauses for a second and then agrees, continuing on the same line of thought.

_'__Protect yourself from everyone but him. Be yourself only when you're with him. For a while, be immune.'_

I look up, wanting to smile at her encouraging words, as the door opens. Speak of the devil. I'm sitting cross-legged on our shared bed (only because neither of us mind, nor does either of us particularly like the idea of sleeping on the sofa), in pajamas I got from Urahara the week before. Matsumoto was a bit disappointed, she wanted to take me shopping.

_'I'm telling him everything. Why I haven't gone home, why I have nothing, why I can leave for Soul Society without telling anyone. Now, I _will___tell him.'_

Miharu doesn't say anything, but she sends feelings of encouragement and happiness, retreating to the back of my mind.

He comes and sits down next to me. My heartbeat increases, and the nervousness from before comes back.

I really need to take my own advice.

"Ah, T-Tōshirō I have something to tell you."

-

I stare at her, blinking. Apprehensive and stuttering? Something to tell me? It must be about her past_, _I think, pleased at her decision to trust me.

She glances at me and looks away. "I want to explain about everything...," She sighs, "But I'm scared of what you'll say."

"Shizuka, you'll never know what I'll say until you say it. And it's better to get it out of the way now." I state, knowing she will understand what I mean about 'now'. It's highly probable Yamamoto will ask for details about her past, abilities, and her knowledge about the afterlife.

She looks at me, locking her gaze onto mine.

"I know mostly what only I was told so I'm not sure If it's completely true. Try not to interrupt, it's quite long and I just want to get this over and done with."

I nod.

She takes a deep breath, seeming to plan out mentally how she wants to start.

"When I was six I was in an accident and I fell into a coma. I woke up four years ago and I wasn't in a hospital. I was in a prison cell, in a place like a castle. I remember the first thing I noticed was that I was wearing white clothes like Shinigami robes, and then I fell asleep again. When I next woke up, I was strapped to an operating table and I was surrounded by people wearing the same style clothes as me. Most of them had parts of masks on their faces and holes in various places, like their neck or stomach.

"There was this one man, he said he was a renegade Shinigami, as were the two men next to him. Introduced himself as Aizen Sosuke, and them as Tousen Kaname and Ichimaru Gin. The other guys were Arrancar. I... don't want to go into details, let's just say that I didn't have a very pleasant time while I was there. After a while I found out that they had captured my father too, and we were allowed to spend a little of our daily time together. Sometimes we trained together and he told me things about who I was.

"About six months after I woke up, there was this big invasion by Kurosaki Ichigo. I only just remembered it was him," She smiles sadly and continues, "My father died when they mistook him for an Arrancar. I managed to escape to what I had found out to be Hueco Mundo. I... fell through the desert into the Forest of Menos. I spent two and a half years fighting Hollows down there, when Kanou Ashido helped me escape. I would have offered to take him with me, but he stayed there of his own free will. I ended up in the human world, three and a half years after I was first kidnapped, nowhere near here. I've spent the last few months making my way here, to where father said we had lived before the kidnappings. I had found out my address from father and was making my way there... I don't know if I have any family there but he never mentioned it so I was... - am - hopeful. I was in the park, just about to make my way there, when you showed up. I decided it didn't matter anymore and I would leave with you and put my past behind me. Before I left Hueco Mundo I even changed my name so people wouldn't recognise me, my father said he was known in Soul Society. Now you know why I haven't spent even a second without you for the past four weeks, why I have Shinigami powers, why I haven't gone home..."

I'm frozen with shock, even though I know I should really say something because of the way she's eyeing me fearfully.

She too knew Aizen and had been hurt by him, she had lost her father and she still managed to carry on and smile. The person in question shifts uncomfortably at my silence. I blink, and pull her into my lap.

"What are you afraid of, you silly girl. You did nothing wrong. You were kidnapped and trained by the man that killed my best friend." Her eyes widen, and she looks apologetic and angry at someone. "But you were never there of your on free will. You spent two and a half years fighting just to get out of that place. My only regret is that your father died... Can you tell me your real name?"

She leans against me and whispers, "Nakamura Shizuka." My mouth drops open. I was surprised at her story, and I had wanted to know the last name of her father since she mentioned him, at the very beginning. It's a good thing she didn't tell me until now, I would have done something rash. Like level Hyourinmaru at her jugular. I re-hinge my jaw.

"Nakamura Daisuke was the former captain of the tenth squad. He was captain while I was ascending in the ranks. He was part of the royal family. I remember that he left when he fell in love with a human woman, and I was given his place, and we classified him as a renegade Shinigami but never made to capture him. He never had any harmful intentions toward us so he was forgotten and left alone. I remember he had dark brown eyes and hair, and he was kind and liked making jokes, never afraid to put himself down. But he could also be deadly serious when needed, and he was terrifyingly strong."

She looks at me with sad eyes and smiles, nodding her head at my description. A thought strikes me.

"Why don't we go and see your house?"

She blinks and then shrugs, but I see she's nervous again from her eyes.

"We should get out of our gigais first."

We both pop gikon pills and climb out the window. It's about half ten, you couldn't see the stars but the moon is visible. Shizuka leads the way, not using flash-step. I knew she was still afraid of what she would find. Had her mother remarried? Was she dead? Had she moved away? Would there be other people in the house? Had the house been demolished? The uncertainty must be killing her. After a seconds deliberation I reach out and grab her hand, pulling her closer to me and intertwining out fingers. I send her a look that clearly states 'I'm here'.

She smiles in gratitude and tightens her grip a little. We carry on walking at a normal pace, until we arrive at the right street. Shizuka pulls out a piece of paper to look at the address and reads "Number seventy-five." We look at number three and then down the road, glancing at each other and making faces, starting to walk down, each of us quietly grumbling about sore feet. It takes quite a few minutes and finally we arrive at the right number.

A white house with a beautiful and well looked after front garden. A willow tree is taking up lots of the space, but there is a small front pathway leading to a nicely tiled patio, which has a roof covering a wooden picnic table and barbeque. In front of that is a flower bed, and all the fences have bushes in front of them. There is a wall-climber on one part of the house, ivy perhaps. The house definitely doesn't look uncared for so we hesitantly walk up the path and past the patio on our left towards the front door. Stopping a little way away to examine possible entrance routes, Shizuka suggests going straight to the bedroom. We notice a window set into the roof on one side, so we jump up and open it, Shizuka slipping down first. I follow, jumping silently into the room and looking around. Shizuka has already moved away, and she was standing at the desk in the far corner, holding a photo frame in a shaking hand. I frown and walk towards her, looking over her shoulder at the photo.

A man and a woman with a little girl sitting cross-legged in between them. They were on a sofa when the photo was taken, the man with dark brown hair was scrunching up his nose, his arms folded over his chest. The girl in the middle was shrugging her shoulders and holding up her hands, in a 'your guess is as good as mine' way. The woman with short blonde hair kneeling on the sofa was almost doubled over with laughter. It was obvious she was laughing at the man, who was pretending to be angry, and the girl was saying that she didn't see what was so funny.

It's easy to see how happy they are, how much they love each other.

I wrap my arms around Shizuka's waist to try and comfort her. She slowly puts the photo down and turns so she was facing me. I feel guilty when her silent crying becomes obvious. She puts her arms under mine and brings them up over my back to hold on to my shoulders. We stay like that for a while, until she's just leaning on me, tired. I pick up the photo frame and take out the photo, putting the frame back on the table and giving her the photo. She looks up at me, bleary eyes blinking.

"Keep it." I say softly.

She nods and slips it into one of the pockets of her configured robes. We look around more carefully now that our eyes have adjusted to the light and notice the room is a cross between a bedroom and an office. It has a desk, a bookcase, a wardrobe, a chest of draws, a floor-length mirror... and a single bed. Which is occupied. We glance at each other, nodding in silent agreement. We advance toward the bed slowly, me matching her pace. She's holding my hand so tightly it feels like she wants to crush the bones.

When we get to the side of the bed she slowly starts to pull back the covers to unveil a sleeping woman curled up on her side, long blonde hair splayed out on the pillow behind her. Shizuka gently turns her head, trying not to disturb her. She gasps softly. Easily recognisable as the woman from the photo, and even more recognisable as Shizuka's mother, so much like a… blonde older version of her. She lets her head fall back down onto the pillow and turns to me. Unshed tears now in her eyes as she says quietly, almost sighing,

"I want to go now."

I look at her and then pick her up bridal style and carry her through the window, closing it after us. I shuunpo back to Inoue's house and climb in through our window, laying Shizuka down on the futon. She gets under the covers, as do I. It's well past eleven and we have to get up early to get to Soul Society on time for the meeting I had scheduled. We slipped back into our respective physical bodies. She curls up close to me and I place my arms around her. It's a lot to take on in one day.

"She must live alone."

"Yes, I wonder if she has moved on or not."

"...I hope not. I know that not moving on is a bad thing but the thought of a step-dad and stepsiblings is so much more painful. I'm selfish huh."

"Shizuka, no-one is truly selfless. Not even me, and I'm not even 'human' anymore."

"I guess." she admits quietly, sounding half-way convinced.

"We should go to sleep now. Long day tomorrow."

After a while she speaks again, sounding unsure. "Toushirou, what should we say to Yamamoto?"

"...Anything he doesn't ask about, we don't tell him. It would be best to keep things close to our chests, especially if personal."

"You mean were not going to tell him about us?"

"Not _yet_. We need to make sure he trusts you and approves of something usually prohibited, or he may forbid it."

"So you mean orders come first?" She looks upset from what I can tell. I shake my head negatively and kiss her forehead.

"No, you come first. But it would be better to live in Soul Society than as renegade Shinigami, won't it?"

"Would you please stop proving me wrong? Its irritating." She was smiling now, looking pleased.

"You proved me wrong first."

She looked like she was solving a hard math problem, finally speaking slowly and hesitantly.

"You still haven't told me who Hinamori is."

"She was the childhood friend that was killed by Aizen." Her expression says I'm not going to get away with just that, so I sigh and continue. "We lived in Rukongai together like family. She entered the Shinigami Academy just to get closer to Aizen. She idolised him. After graduating, she managed to get into his squad. Around this time, I was found by Matsumoto and she made me enter the Academy, saying that I had too much potential, but what really made me leave was that the uncontrolled reiatsu I was giving off was freezing Granny, the old woman that had looked after me and Hinamori. I entered the academy and graduated in a fraction of the normal time. I entered the 10 squad and was put straight under the tutelage of its captain, Nakamura Daisuke. By the time I was captain after Nakamura-Taichou had left, Hinamori was Aizen's fukutaichou.

"A while after this, Kuchiki Rukia left on a mission to the real world and she met carrot top. She broke the law and gave him her powers so he could save his family, meaning when she was brought back she had charges of treason and was to be executed. Ichigo invaded with other humans, like Inoue, Ishida and Sado. They managed to get into Seretei and save her, and during this time Aizen staged his death using his Zanpaktou's power, illusions. Hinamori... was devastated and wasn't thinking straight. When she first saw the body stuck to a tower with his own sword, she attacked Ichimaru. He was smiling, as always, and I had even warned her about him. We restrained her nd she fought, giving Matsumoto and other fukutaichou's a few scars. She was put temporarily in a cell, and when we were searching Aizen's office I found a letter addressed to her. I didn't read it and gave it to Matsumoto to give to her, a mistake. It said I had murdured her captain and she believed it. She attacked me while I was fighting Ichimaru Gin, who I suspected of conspiracy.

"To cut a long story short, Ichigo made friends with many people in Seretei and many believed that Rukia had done nothing wrong, or at least nothing bad enough to deserve the death penalty. He saved her and we discovered that Aizen was a traitor after we discovered that room 46, the people that have more power then Yamamoto, had been murdered. Aizen killed Hinamori, stabbing her just after she had found out that he was still alive (A/N: I know she didn't actually die then, but here she does). Matsumoto and I had gone there because we were suspicious, and we survived... Barely. Immediately after, he revealed he had formed an alliance with Hollows, and was transported to Hueco Mundo by Menos Grande, along with Kaname and Ichimaru. He wanted to overthrow Soul Society. Hinamori had not believed he was a traitor even when she was bleeding to death from the wound he had given her."

I take a deep breath, pushing back my grief and anger and feeling of loss.

"So that's why you really hate him." She states quietly.

"Yes. And now I hate him even more, after finding out what he did to you. And you mean more to me than Hinamori ever did."

I say it without thinking, but even so I know it's true. (Perhaps not true if Hinamori had survived and seen the error of her ways... but still) Shizuka smiles happily. Then she laughs quietly and says:

"We really should go to sleep now."

I chuckle and pull her closer.

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I didn't change much here, only adding in little details and taking a few things out and so on and so forth. Hope you enjoyed!


	5. Departure

Rewritten chpater 5!

(I know my chapters are getting shorter so I will try to make the one after this as long as I can!) - Previous comment (xD), I hope I did make this longer. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I definately don't own Bleach. Unfortunately.

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"So, are we going to kill my human body or what?"

He sighs. "Well get out of it then. Without using a gikon pill."

I comply and look at him, pretending to be completely clueless so as to what to do next. I look around the still horribly pink room in innocence, as if a magical Human Body Killer will appear. I suddenly tap a finger to my lip.

"We should burn it! Only... not here."

He picks up my body and jumps out the window, I follow after having smiled naively at his irritated look, both of us using shuunpo. We arrive at a forest on the edge of town, both of us deeming it desolate enough and sparsely decorated with greenery around the edges. He lays down my body and looks at me.

"Unless you want to freeze it, you'll have to burn it yourself. Isn't your Zanpaktou fire and light? And she's called..."

He trails off, and I roll my eyes, pretending to be indignant. In reality, I still don't trust him enough to tell him intimate details of my Zanpaktou. I'm actually quite relieved he can't remember the name and only the vague description of her abilities.

"_Miharu _is a white phoenix that controls fire."

"A phoenix? You never told me that!" He says accusingly, and I direct a sceptical look his way as I bend down and examine my human body.

"A _bird _that controls _fire_. What else was she going to be?"

"Humph." He turns away angrily. I pause and decide to apologise, however much doing such a thing for anybody seems like degrading myself. I half glomp him half tell him he's giving me a piggyback, saying:

"You know, for a child prodigy you are sometimes quite dense."

I drop my head onto his shoulder, resting the side of it against him. He understands the gesture of affection, not taking my apology for an insult.

"Like you, you mean?"

He replies airily, I huff, sliding off him but still pretending to be subtly trying to choke him. He smirks and turns around in my grip, loosening it and throwing me a challenge with his eyes.

"Oh shut up."

He just laughs, turning his head to shoot me a look, resisting my scrunched up pouting face with ease (hmm...). "Burn your body already." I step away from him, towards myself, and draw my Zanpaktou, smiling at the suddenly eased mental connection between us.

"Akaaka to moeru, Miharu!" A flash, and a huge bird of prey in a regal pose appears. Almost completely white, with a huge wingspan that still amazes me (surely she doesn't need all those feathers? It must be showing off) and several long tail feathers which trail along the ground. White fire tinged slightly with red and blue running up and down her body, like an electric current. Turning her head, her gaze lands on the supposedly unaffected Tōshirō (he was open-mouthed only a second ago) so she could look at him with a bright green eye.

"A pleasure to finally meet you, Shinigami."

"Yoroshuku." Tōshirō looks at me sideways at my smirk. He's never seen my shikai before, there's really no need if you're only fighting the minor Hollows that are stupid enough to come to Karakura when there's a captain and lieutenant, and stay around to get their butts kicked.

"Miharu," The phoenix turns her head towards me. "You know what to do."

She lifts one of her legs, concentrating the silently cackling fire on one of her claws. Bringing it down in a decisive movement, she stabs the sleeping human body, which is immediately engulfed in white-hot flames. I wait, somewhat expectantly, but I don't feel different, like I had expected. I guess I'm so used to Shinigami form that losing my human body doesn't affect me much.

As we back away, me holding an arm in front of my eyes, Miharu looks at us one last time and I suddenly smile. She leans her head towards me and I touch her feathery cheek.

"You must come and talk to me sometime, Shizuka."

With that said she disappears in a flash of white light as I sheathe my blade.

Tōshirō looks at me. "A bit overcompensating, her size."

_I heard that._

Her voice isn't indignant, just dry and making me imagine her rolling her eyes. I laugh, making him look at me like I'm completely crazy.

"She says she heard that."

He smiles, however little. "We should get back now."

We turn and shuunpo back to see Matsumoto and Hanatarou waiting with the others outside Orihime's house. Hanatarou smiles and waves, he looks nervous for some reason. Huh. _I_'m the one who should be nervous. Should I even be doing this? I shake my head inwardly. _'Don't even think about it.'_

Tōshirō nods to the others seeing us off, and, without any preamble, uses his Zanpaktou to open the gateway. I take a deep breath and step towards the sliding doors. I look over my shoulder just in time to see them close (making me think that there's really no going back now) and suddenly we are standing in front of the North Gate.

Hanatarou waves goodbye, saying he needs to go to the Fourth Division. Matsumoto grins and disappears to Tenth Division, she has to do the promised punishment paperwork. Tōshirō and I walk quickly toward the First Division. Tōshirō does not want to be late (as he has told me so many times this past week) for the meeting. As we arrive, he motions with his hand and I move to stand to his right, face impassive. He silently opens the doors to the meeting room. He has already notified Yamamoto that he has urgent news, but he didn't give any information about what was so pressing. The assembled captains look either surprised at my presence, completely uninterested or curious, as this is a Captains only meeting.

"Jyuu-ban-tai Taichou, what is the meaning of this?" Yamamoto doesn't look angry, but that doesn't mean much.

Tōshirō replies in an offhand voice, which we both know would be best. We can't reveal anything beyond the absolutely necessary just yet.

"I found her on the mission; she is a human with Shinigami powers. She has helped me with eliminating the Hollows and has returned with me, firstly because we need not have a renegade Shinigami and secondly because she has expressed a wish to become a proper Shinigami, living here in Seretei."

All the captains look surprised now. A few are also angry, a few still stoic, and a few look glad. Most are just surprised. And one is looking at me like I am something to eat.

"How do we know that she can be trusted and has no ulterior motive? We are not without enemies." Yamamoto speaks slowly, and I decide he is wondering how to start his interrogation.

"She has shown no wish to harm the Shinigami we interacted with during the mission and she has not communicated with anyone during any time. Also, we have a common enemy."

Yamamoto nods, looking pleased with the explanation, and curious now. He turns to me, which is good, because I was getting tired of being talked about like I'm not standing right next to them.

"Why do you want to become a Shinigami? Do you have nothing tying you to the real world?"

"I had a human body but I disposed of it with Hitsugaya-Taichou before leaving. I have not been in the human world very long and have nothing to make me stay." I spoke respectfully, not wanting to seem insolent or make him angry.

"Naruhodo. And where did you get these powers? We know of few people with cases like yours."

I want to look to Tōshirō for reassurance, but I can't show them that I trust him. I proceed to tell Yamamoto, about my past. I summarise it, leaving out a few gorey details.

"...And that's when I was found by Hitsugaya-Taichou." The person in question cuts in, saying monotonously: "Details of what happed after that will be included in the mission report." The others only glance at him before focusing their attention back on me. Now they are wary, knowing I have interacted with Aizen, been to Hueco Mundo, been experimented on and tortured, seen my father die before my very eyes, and I am possibly very mentally unstable.

Yamamoto is silent for a minute, thinking about what to ask next, as most of my reasons don't have to be said aloud after my retelling.

"What is your current Zanpaktou level?"

He asks finally, and I sigh. The one question I had hoped to avoid. And, being that I didn't mention it, they will now know I am withholding at least some information.

"During my escape, when I fought Aizen, I achieved bankai."

I expected jaws dropping to the floor surprised, but most of them seem to have expected it. After all, Tōshirō would only have brought me here if I was a real asset, or a real threat.

"Do you presume to ask to take the place of a Taichou?"

I resist the urge to look at him sceptically. "No. I have never had such responsibilities before, nor do I think a Division would follow me if I told them of my past, which I would do. I would much rather become someone's subordinate, as long as I don't get too many missions in the real world."

"I suggest she becomes one of mine, I have always had a vice-captain with a habit of skiving off paperwork and errands." Some captains smile a bit at that, looking down to hide it better. Yamamoto seems pensive now, and he examines me. I really wish he would stroke his beard to lower the tension.

"You told us that you changed your name, and have not even told us your pseudonym."

I look down and say quietly, closing my eyes and sighing, I know exactly why they had asked. They wanted to know which of my parents was a Shinigami, and who they were.

"I went by the name Ayame, whereas my real name is Nakamura Shizuka."

Some gasp, shocked, or finally let their draws drop to the floor. They remember Daisuke clearly, it has, after all, only been a few Shinigami years since he defected.

I am so totally _famous_.

"I am aware of my family name, and of who my father was, but only after I was told by Hitsugaya-Taichou."

I raise my head, and see Yamamoto looking tired, and his eyes sad.

"You will train under Hitsugaya-Taichou and when you are ready, if you wish, you shall take the Captain test for the division you choose. You will also go on supervised missions to prove your loyalty. Hitsugaya-Taichou, I expect you to prepare everything as you would if she was a new recruit. You will choose where to seat her."

I bow, it's a generous offer. And not one mention of dying or prison.

Tōshirō nods and leads me out of the meeting room. We shuunpo back to his division, finding a worried looking Matasumoto actually doing paperwork. She jumps up when she sees us. She looks from me to Tōshirō nervously, wondering what had been decided. I smile slightly before bowing my head respectfully.

"Yoroshku, Matsumoto-fukutaichou."

She stands still, shocked, and then screams and jumps at us, realising that I had been recruited into the squad. Both of us get caught in a bone crushing and suffocating hug. Somehow neither of us are mad, and it's all I can do not to laugh with her. She finally pulls away and grins, because we are both blue from lack of oxygen.

"Taichou, I'm going to go celebrate! I'll leave you here for some fun. Bye Taichou, Shizuka!" She runs off, followed after a second by Tōshirō's shout:

"_You haven't finished your paperwork! Matsumoto! Get back here!"_

I just laugh and walk over to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head against his chest. He looks a bit surprised, then he smiles this really cute smile and leans down to kiss me.

Matsumoto giggles silently from behind the door. She had run away a bit, then covered her reiatsu and come back. She still had the special camera from Urahara, luckily. Toushirou had found the photos and supposedly destroyed them. Knowing him, he probably still had them, hidden away and ready to be put in the photo album also hidden in his desk. Pausing, she smiles evilly and turns on the flash (just so he'll know). She snaps a photo and then runs, even faster than before, heading for her favourite bar.

_"MATSUMOTO! GIVE ME THAT CAMERA RIGHT NOW!!_

_"...__**MAT-SU-MO-TO!**__"_

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The only thing I think I should translate is 'Akaaka to moeru', which means, 'burn brightly'.

Thank you all for reading, hopefully you are all looking forward to the next chapter!


	6. All Over Again

Enjoy :D.

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach.

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I sigh and lean back into my seat, running a hand through my hair.

A week since Yamamoto decided to place me in the 10th squad and Tōshirō put me in 3rd seat. As he had guessed, I was doing most of Matsumoto's paperwork as well as my own, and I am also running errands (which is much better than running for your life, so I'm not complaining). But, I think as I look at Tōshirō's desk, he still has, at least, a stack twice the size of mine everyday.

Now that I think about it, I'm so bored and paperwork is not in any way exciting. I still have about half left of Matsumoto's, with another pile set aside from a while ago that can only be signed by the Vice-Captain or Captain.

"Hey, Tōshirō." He looks at me after having moved some of his paperwork to one side of his desk. I purse my lips to stop from laughing. I don't know why but I'm finding it incredibly funny.

"Yes, Shizuka?"

"Is there any paperwork I can help you with?"

He doesn't even look surprised, and he knows how much I dislike it. He looks back down towards his current form and says disinterestedly, returning to his work,

"You have an ulterior motive."

I smile and reply "I want you to finish quicker so we can do something else."

He looks up, raising a scathing eyebrow.

"You always have the same idea when you say 'something else'."

I pout jokingly, stopping when he smirks.

"You act like it isn't fun."

He looks back down, filling in again. "I didn't say that."

"Then you _do _want me to help you!"

He doesn't seem startled at all as I appear right in front of him. He merely takes off about a third of his paperwork, handing it to me without looking up.

"This is most of the stuff that doesn't have to be signed by a captain."

I grimace and take it to my desk. We spend the next hour (that should give you an idea of how much paperwork there was) quietly filling in sheets. I got up to hand Tōshirō the papers I had finished so he could order them. We finally finished the damned stuff so I got up (again, that should give you an idea of how much he's addicted) to make tea. I was standing, bored again, waiting for the kettle to boil when I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I don't attack, even though I never heard them coming or sensed their presence. I lean back, closing my eyes happily. He now does little affectionate gestures, even if it's just when we are alone. We still haven't informed Yamamoto of this yet and we want him to at least start to trust me as someone who won't betray Seretei. I haven't even gone on one of those supervised missions to prove my loyalty yet. Tōshirō found out when handing in his report that they wanted me to stay where I was for at least a Shinigami year, before even considering a mission to the real world. They told him that I needed to know more about Seretei and the Noble Families and etcetera. I know that they have three positions open, and that I could choose what division I would captain eventually, but (if things go that smoothly and if I actually want to become a captain by then) I want the ninth. It's the closest, after all. And the vice-captain is getting along well doing all the paperwork himself.

But a Shinigami year, basically always with Tōshirō, and most of it alone! I hadn't thought that it was that long, but when he told me I didn't know that one Shinigami year is longer than ten human ones! I'm going to almost re-live all my human years with Tōshirō! I resist the urge to smile widely. Or glomp the poor boy behind me.

The kettle starts to make a high-pitched noise and I gently brake away from Tōshirō to finish making the tea. I took it into the office and sat down on the sofa, waiting for Tōshirō to sit down next to me, rolling his eyes. We drink silently, just enjoying each other's company. It was hard to do when loud Matsumoto was around, because of her loudness, (or others, because it's obviously still a secret). Especially when she was talking about us, she was always saying "kawaii-desu!" which, without fail, gets Tōshirō seriously pissed.

"Shall we go training, then?" Tōshirō nods, placing his cup back on the tray.

We both adjust the Zanpaktous on our backs and then walk out of the office, after leaving a note to Matsumoto explaining why and where we had gone. Well, that part was written by me, with a threat by Tōshirō added on at the end. He is still _so _pissed at her for not doing her paperwork. She hasn't even finished the first lot for telling everyone in the real world about us and she had loads more to do for taking photos with the camera from Urahara that she always manages to hide somewhere whenever Tōshirō goes looking for it.

We shuunpo quickly to the training areas, there are some assigned for every division. Naturally, Fourth and Twelfth divisions have smaller training areas, they don't use much zanjitsu. On the other hand, Eleventh and Second have loads. Tenth has a normal amount, with one secluded area that Toushirou usually trains in. It's the second biggest, the first biggest being an archery range shape, for practicing kidou. No one else likes to use this one, just in case Tōshirō should want to train and they angered him by wasting his time and occupying his unofficial space. Of course, only the lower seated officers and unseated officers think this, the ones that haven't ever really talked to him and don't know him. Most people in his division know, as well a few others, that he would approve of training and they would not be reprimanded or anything. A lot of people were -are- fooled by his icy facade. Which he put up for defense and image. He just doesn't want to be viewed as a child.

I smirk slightly as we arrive at previously mentioned secluded spot. Unfortunately, he looks young and is just so short.

We take places at the opposite ends of the field, watching each other, waiting for the other to move. I reach up behind my back (I have to wear mine on my back for the same reason as Tōshirō, it would drag on the floor otherwise) and draw my Zanpaktou silently. I shuunpo towards him quickly and swing down, only to be blocked by Hyourinmaru. I quickly pull back and feign to the left before swinging back to the right. He smirks and dodges easily, while taking a swing at my neck. I parry and take advantage of him still dodging my previous attack to rapidly flick towards his side.

When we finally take a break from exchanging blows, both of us more or less unharmed, we notice a small crowd has formed to one side, all of them watching us. I do a scan and recognise Ukitake and Kyouraku. They're both smiling hugely, and they wave and start walking over. As they stop in front of us Ukitake says:

"A battle between two child genii is something well worth watching. It seems you are stronger than we thought, Ayame."

I smile, the one that causes a dimple in my left cheek. Ukitake gets an 'aw' face.

"Thank you. And call me Shizuka. What do you mean by that?"

Ukitake smiles back at me, looking like he's resisting pinching my face like a doting grandmother. "We know that you have already achieved Bankai but not that you also match Hitsugaya-taichou in swordplay."

"Thankfully. I'm good with swords, but I'm really, _really_, bad with Kidou."

"Why would that be?" Kyouraku is talking to me now.

I sigh and simplify the truth. "I have an awful memory. I'm surprised I can remember my Zanpaktou commands."

Ukitake laughs as Kyouraku wonders lazily, suspicious look in his eyes,

"I wonder what a shikai or bankai battle would look like."

I look sideways at Tōshirō, who has his arms crossed and his gaze focused on the distance, face impassive. Most people would think the noticeable rigidity in his shoulders is because he's being interrupted during training, but I know that he is majorly pissed at being ignored.

"You game?"

He glares warningly at Ukitake and Kyouraku, making them turn back calmly and go to stand with the crowd. I smirk at Tōshirō as he glares at me, but with less heat, I'd like to think.

"They're probably going to have nightmares now."

He humphs and walked away, uncrossing his arms to reach for Hyourinmaru, turning around quickly and saying in a low tone "Souten ni zase, Hyourinmaru!"

I quickly copy him.

"Akaaka to moeru, Miharu!"

Hyourinmaru quickly manifests and he rushes towards me, light glinting off him as he does a tight spiral. At the last second, Miharu appears and attacked him with her wings, making him retreat as huge gusts push him away. I smile and shouted "Shiroi honoo!" There's a bright flash as Miharu turns into white flames. She dives toward Hyourinmaru, who tries to freeze her. The ice was almost immediately melted into water, which froze again into Hyourinmaru.

-

We continue on in this fashion for quite a while, until Shizuka used a new move that she whispered so I wouldn't hear it. Suddenly everything flashes bight white, making me lose most of my vision, and everything starts burning, including Hyourinmaru, who I drop (to his aggravation…and mine) immediately. The move stops after she says 'release'. She smiles and walks over to me, helping me up from my kneeling position. I compose my face and ask:

"What was that technique?"

She smiles and says: "It's the strongest move that I can do in Shikai. It burns everything you can see, but only that. That's why I control the flash at the beginning, so I wouldn't burn everyone." She gestures to the awed spectators. She turns away from them and gives me a self-conscious smile as she rubs the back of her head. I glare at them, causing them to disperse. Minus Ukitake and Kyouraku, who felt the need to come over and bother us, _again_.

As soon as they are in definite hearing distance Kyouraku says:

"If only we were allowed to release Bankai, I wouldn't have wanted to miss that."

-

"I didn't expect your Zanpaktou type be fire, Shizuka. It's the most powerful." Ukitake comments to me, as Kyouraku bothers Tōshirō.

I half smile half glare at him and say:

"And what do you mean by that?"

He freezes for a second before jumping back and waving his hands in front of him quickly.

"Nothing, nothing!"

"Good." I give a smile and ask him about his Zanpaktou and why he has two.

-

Meanwhile, Kyouraku and I were having a discussion. Meaning, he was annoying me and I was answering stoically and listening to Shizuka and Ukitake. So I wasn't listening and answered what came into my head.

"How long have you and Shizuka been going out?"

"Five weeks..." I answered absentmindedly. My eyes widen as I realise what I had just said (_'how did he know?!... I'm such an idiot'_). I look at a smirking Kyouraku and before I can say anything he says:

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

I glare at him and say, thanking the Gods,

"Good, it means I won't have to tell anyone about the time I walked in on you and Nanao."

Kyouraku lifts his hat, smirking. "Mataku, now I really will have to keep quiet. I didn't know it was you."

I say condescendingly, but still not managing to keep amusement out of my voice, "I'm surprised you noticed that anyone had come in. You were quite occupied."

He just smirks again and says: "Oh! A little bit of the old Tōshirō!"

I glare at him and he turns towards Ukitake and Shizuka's conversation. He breaks in, saying:

"Well, it was nice talking to you Shizuka, but we have to go! Paperwork needs signing!"

Yeah, whatever. I glare at their retreating backs and think out loud:

"If he has ever done his paperwork I will eat my haori."

Shizuka looks at me sideways strangely before laughing silently.

"He knows about us."

That shut her up. He eyes go wide and she says, looking after him thoughtfully,

"Will he tell?"

"He said he wouldn't but I don't trust him. He likes to gossip too much. I blackmailed him though, I think were safe. For now, anyway."

"Blackmailed? With what?"

I start walking toward my Division, it is getting dark. I reply quietly "Once I walked in on him and his Vice-Captain."

"…Nanao?"

"Yeah."

"What exactly were they doing?"

I roll my eyes, remembering how surprised I'd been. "Just having sex on the desk."

I chuckle at her expression as she goes: "Wo-ow! When did this happen?" She is completely shocked, and now looks immensely curious.

"A while before I left for the mission."

"And you didn't tell _anyone_?"

-

By now we are back at the office. We notice that Matsumoto must not have come back… or has pretended not to have come back because nothing has changed. Tōshirō picks our note off the door and scrunches it up, throwing over his shoulder into the bin across the room. He looks at the undone paperwork on her desk with a frown. I reach up from next to him and smooth out his tanned forehead.

"You shouldn't do that. You'll get wrinkles."

"Does that mean I can't smile either?"

I ignore his comment.

"I usually say not to worry so much or you'll go prematurely gray, but you've skipped to white already."

He glares at me before stopping suddenly and looking at me emotionlessly. I frown.

"You said 'I just think you're hotter when you make that face' so now I won't make that face."

"You are so cute!"

He rolls his eyes. "You really are nothing like it."

"I'm not... like what? What?"

"Your name is quiet summer. You're really loud and you like the cold and the rain."

"I was told that I was born on a quiet summer's day."

"So you weren't named after personality."

I snort.

"How can you tell a baby's personality? You would probably just end up embarrassing yourself if you tried to name by personality."

"You being a perfect example."

"I just explained tha--"

"I _was_ listening. But, if you had you would have--"

I suddenly glomp him, cutting him off. He looks at me icily, eyebrow raised.

"What are you doing?"

"I was getting bored talking about my name." I lean towards his ear.

He scowls. "I get the picture already."

I pull back, frowning. "What's up with you today?"

He looks sideways, running a hand through his hair. "I'm just frustrated."

I look at him thoughtfully. Then I pull him towards the sofa and make him sit down, sitting down next to him.

"Tell me." I add on a 'now' look.

"I just...I just feel that I should be doing something else. That this isn't enough."

I smile. "You don't like paperwork."

He suddenly turns toward me, eyes far too serious.

"Why am I here, Shizuka? Why are we here? Why do I spend so much time doing paperwork and shouting at Matsumoto? Why do I still _exist_? I'm dead, Shizuka. I don't have a purpose. I shouldn't have one. Why can't we just die?" He turns back. "What do I have to make me go on?"

Getting a grip, I turn his face toward me. "You have _me_. You're here because you are. It's just the way things are. Just do what you want to and... Well, just exist for the sole purpose of existing. You don't need a dream or purpose that you've thought of to live, that just makes it easier to move on. And we never had a purpose in the first place, even when we were alive," I grin. "…Wow, that was deep, if I do say so myself."

He looks shocked and then he just quietly laughs, shaking his head. "You have some mood swings."

I pout. Then smile. "Well, at least you'll get variety."

He suddenly looks at me, probing.

"What did you do when you were in Hueco Mundo to keep you going?"

I frown. "I… don't remember much from that time."

"Why?"

I take a deep breath. "Do you know about that Espada with the pink hair?"

He smiles slightly.

"That gay guy who was in charge of technology?"

I smile, but it fades quickly. "Yeah. Well, he, um, investigated as to why I was human and had Shinigami powers. After most of his experiments I suffered memory loss."

Tōshirō's expression is thunderous. "If that asshole wasn't already dead I'd kill him all over again."

I smile sadly. "At least with the memory loss I don't remember most of the experiments or most of my time there. I don't really remember most of my training with father, but Miharu taught me again. I didn't have time to learn Kidou again though."

"You should learn."

"No! I want to be different. Ha ha!"

"You what?"

"If I don't learn Kidou people will be like 'Oh my god, she doesn't know Kidou and she's a Captain! Sugoi-na! She's so cool!'"

He shakes his head, sending me a weird look but laughing anyway.

"You're hopeless…And annoying." He adds as an afterthought.

"But you love me anyway!"

I say it like it's nothing, merely a statement of fact. Instead it's more an apprehensive question.

He looks at me calmly, before glaring playfully. "As you very well know and take advantage of."

Hiding relief, I raise my finger into the air, closing my eyes. "One must find the good points of every situation and use them accordingly."

I open my eyes just in time to see him rolling his.

"You just made that up on the spot, didn't you?"

I lower my finger and grin. "You could say that."

Suddenly Tōshirō's eyes are covered by someone's hands. I follow the arms to see a grinning Matsumoto.

"Guess who!"

Instead of answering he breaks from her grip and pulls me away towards the door, using shuunpo. He quickly jumps though the doorway, tugging me through before slamming it and using a Kidou spell. Once finished, he calmly says loud enough for Matsumoto to hear through the door:

"You will not come out of the office until you have done all the remaining paperwork. I will notify the messengers and they will bring the paperwork straight to my room, so don't expect the door to be opened by accident. Also, if within two days it is not done, I will burn the stash of sake I found in the bookcase."

There's silence for a few seconds as he lets it sink in. Then a pleading:

"Taichou! Onegai! I don't want to do paperwork!"

What sounds like someone very _bouncy _throwing themselves against the door.

"Do it, or I'll shorten the sentence."

"…Hai Taichou, the paperwork will be done by two days time!"

He looks at me and smiles before walking down the corridor towards his room, sitting down on his bed. I follow and close the door behind me, before bursting into laughter, even though I feel a bit bad for her. Being in a prison is… well, there are no bad enough words. But at least she gets sofas and stuff.

"You really do know her weak spots."

"Of course I do… Sake."

He admits, and I laugh even harder, moving towards the bed, sitting down next to him.

"Will she really do it in two days?"

"Of course. Sake is a strong motivator."

I wipe away tears and gasp out "I laughed so much it hurts."

He lays down on the bed, closing his eyes. I lie down with my head on his chest. He wraps an arm around my waist, using his other hand to stroke my hair.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, 'shiroi honoo' means 'white flames'… I left out the other name because I don't know what to call it yet ^^'.

Until next chapter!


	7. Worst Nightmare

Rewritten chapter seven! Enjoy!

Warning: Cliffie!

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I don't have the brain capacity to invent such a great character as Hitsugaya-sama.

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_I'm at the edge of a dense green forest, standing on a cliff, looking over the edge. I'm admiring the amazing view of the turquiose sea below me, and thinking absentmindedly that it reminds me of Tōshirō's eyes and wondering how far down it is. Suddenly, I am torn from my musings as I am pushed over the precipice. Somehow, without thinking about it or planning it, I manage to grab onto the edge. I turn my body around and grab on with my other hand. I lean my head back to see who pushed me over._

_I see a girl with brown eyes, most of her dark hair pulled back into what I assume is a bun, wearing the standard Shinigami uniform, but with the lieutenant armband. She looks a few years older than me. She is looking at me with pure loathing and anger in her eyes. Strangely, I feel like glaring right back at her. _She___is angry? Funny. And I thought it was me who was just literally pushed off a cliff. I'm thinking of how much I hate her, and pictures flash like a fast reel, to fast for me to see what they are of._

_"What," I snarl, trying to heave myself up, "the hell did you push me over for!?"_

_I ask, but I have a feeling I know exactly what she'll say._

_"You, it's all your fault!"_

_I didn't know she would say that… But I'm not surprised by it; I expected it, in the back of my mind. (What's going on?)_

_"Kindly explain to me whatever stupid problem of yours is my fault. Your homicidal tendencies? Well, sorry to tell you this, but I think you need anger management. To top your accusations off, I don't even know you!" I exclaim angrily as I continue to struggle with getting over the edge. The words just spewed out of my mouth, I knew I had to say it, like an actor with a__ memorised__ script. But I didn't know I would. I feel a rising confusion, but it's pushed back by the other feelings… feelings with no explanation._

_She moves foreward a foot and steps on my hands, not to make me fall off, just to keep me there._

_"You're the reason Tōshirō doesn't love me anymore!"_

_At the sound of that name I somehow find myself seeing red (_Don't you _dare_ try to speak to me about _him_! _I find myself thinking, and I don't know why…), and I can feel heat, rising with my temper._

_I know I need to calm down, the last time I got this angry I burned down a building. My body isn't completely immune to the heat if Miharu is not released. So, I swallow and then breathe out silently. I close my eyes and try to think of who this person is, why they hate me, what they have to do with Tōshirō, and why they have a strong death wish. (I know it, I know I do, a part of me does, but I _don't_! How can I know something and not know something at the same time?)_

'Okay, firstly, she has a connection to Tōshirō. She loves him, that much is obvious (_I feel something strange as I think this, uneasiness perhaps. Or maybe something I haven't felt in a long, long, time. Such a long time I forget the name). _She says Tōshirō loved her, and she is still not over whatever they had… Ah, envy. I understand. Still, she should not have done that.'

_Now I open my eyes and look at her strangely, knowing she won't see through my pretence of confusion amid anger and impatience._

_"What does he have to do with this? And, by the way, you still haven't told me who you are. That's rude, you know." I continue my efforts to get back up and she presses harder, turning the tips of my fingers red._

_"I am Hinamori Momo, Tōshirō's true lover!"_

_My eyes widen to plates, and my head jerks back. Or, it would, if I was able to move my body. What in the name of all that's holy is _going on _here!? I scream inwardly (Hinamori?! Trying to kill me!? Saying she's Tōshirō's true lover!?), but it goes unheard, and… the other me continues._

_It thinks, I think, "why are we going through this?", and I wonder what the hell I'm thinking._

_I try to look her up and down._

You'_re Hinamori?_

_I look down. The sister figure?... Hm, she doesn't seem to know that… well, that's all she was. She's obsessed with Aizen. What the hell is she doing here anyway? She is technically a traitor… She's lucky he didn't press charges for raising a sword against a Taichou… Well, actually I guess she's not…_

_I look up again._

_You loved Tōshirō? But… you believed Aizen, the letter he wrote… He thought you loved Aizen._

_That's what I think, but, again, I say something completely different._

"_I would hardly call you _lovers_," I scoff, "You betrayed him!"_

_"I know." She answers back hollowly. And she sounds like the weight of the world is on her._

_I still hate her, I still have not one ounce of pity… Why is that? What has she done to me to make me feel so strongly? (The normal me would feel something for her, because she is in such pain. Still, I do not know what she did…)_

_(_'You brought it upon yourself… You have no right to blame me for your mistakes, idiot girl.'_)_

_I'm left speechless. I _know _this person? There's no other way, if I'd never met her before… What is this dream (How do I know this is a dream? So many questions… My head is hurting from the lack of answers)? It's very strange…_

"_He loves me, anyway."_

_I sniff. The… other me, feels unsure despite the boasting._

_I…I wouldn't say something like that to anyone. Even if there was no doubt, I would never say it, ever. But I still feel warmth… Until the doubt of the other me stabs my heart, and now all I am doing is worrying._

_The girl -Hinamori- smiles evilly and appears thoughtful, tapping her finger to her chin. Some might think it's cute, but I hate it. I hate it because I hate all of her. Every last bit._

_"Oh he loves____you, does he? Let's see..."_

_She releases the pressure on my hands and carefully climbs down and holds on the ledge (why aren't I climbing up now, and kicking her in the face so she falls off? If I really hated her, I would do that…). I notice she's standing on ledges jutting out from the ragged cliff edge, but looking down from above it probably looks like she's hanging on for dear life (or Shinigami afterlife), like me. I look upwards and see that her hair is indeed in a bun, and look down again to see her sucking in a huge breath before screaming:_

_"Tōshirō! Save me!"_

_I roll my eyes, both of me. But, again, the other me just does it because it… knows that's what it should be doing._

'Clichéd or what...God she has an annoying voice...please shut up now.'

_I look back up curiously (her voice is that loud? Jeez…) as I hear rapid footsteps running toward us. I see Tōshirō standing over us, in his Shinigami uniform and captain haori, leaning over us with wide eyes. I want to smile as I see him, despite the hanging-over-the-cliffiness of my situation._

_(I'm…You're sad… Sad to see him… What…?)_

_"What happened!?"_

_Before I… I mean, before the other me can answer Hinamori says frantically, sounding terrified,_

_"This girl, Toushirou! She tried to push me over the cliff but luckily she fell down as well!" She turns her head to glare at me hatefully before looking back at Tōshirō. "Help me!"_

_I note dryly (all of me) that she has very good acting skills before looking back up and saying, sounding frustrated,_

_"She's lying! _She___pushed _me___over!"_

_The other me says it with conviction, but feels none._

_I feel a bit sorry for Tōshirō, he looks so confused. I realise that Hinamori wanted this, to make him choose between us (the other me already knew… and it's doubting him. It's _scared_.)_

_"You don't actually believe her do you!? I wouldn't lie to you! She tried to kill me!"_

_My breath stops as I realize that he is glaring at me just as hatefully as Hinamori. The other me just feels sad, resigned, and incredibly tired._

_"T-Tōshirō...?"_

_The other me says fearfully, outwardly mirroring my thoughts._

_He carries on glaring at me as he reaches out his hand to help Hinamori up. As soon as she can stand she hugs him, saying tearfully:_

_"Thank you! I was so scared I was going to fall!"_

_No way...This isn't happening... Is all I can think, but then I remember the 'other me', and they're thinking that "it's exactly the same as before"._

_Before…?_

_He returns her embrace and says quietly, in a clearly honest voice that I wish he wasn't using on her,_

_"There was no way I would let you fall Hinamori, I love you..."_

_I hear the sound of my heart shattering, breaking into a million tiny pieces._

_Finally, something that doesn't surprise me. How sad…_

'God, if you can hear me, please kill me now, I want to forget this...please...'

_Is it strange to feel like giving myself a hug?_

…_But this is just a dream. Just a dream, nothing more. It's vividly realistic, and all that, but dreams are dreams._

_Still, the other me is affecting my feelings, so right now I feel like crying (the other me is a weirdo). _

_The tears stream down my face as I finally let go of the edge I had been holding onto in the hope of rescue. Impossibly my heart, what's left of it, breaks into smaller pieces as I hear Tōshirō__'__s fading voice:_

_"No point saving her now, I only ever really loved you anyway."_

_I hear them walking away as I fall towards blissful oblivion..._

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"O-ne-gai-shi-mas! Taichou! Shizuka! I have finished the paperwork! Please, please, please let me out! Please...!"

The first thing I hear as I wake up, Matsumoto screaming. Not my preferred way to start the day, to be honest. I curse under my breath as I disentangle myself from Shizuka's arms. I turn my head to look at her sleeping face, and plant a kiss on her forehead before climbing out of bed and straightening my robes. I walk out of my –our, really- room and closing the door behind me carefully and walking towards the office door where my kidou is still in place. Matsumoto's squealing continues until I say quietly:

"I am here Matsumoto. Stop screaming or I will have to punish you."

She falls quiet immediately, and I close my eyes and rub my temples, feeling stressed already. Then Matsumoto says, much less loudly this time,

"Taichou, I have finished the paperwork. Let me o-o-o-o-o-ut!"

"And your proof?"

Silence and then, "If I have not done it you can burn the sake."

I shrug. She must have done it then.

"Good enough for me." I mutter.

I remove the kidou and Matsumoto rushes out, not even looking at me; her eyes are fixed on the bathroom door. She enters and accidentally slams the door in her haste. Or at least I think it was accidentally. Ahem.

_'Oops, I guess I didn't think about that...' _I make my way toward the kitchen, my mind wandering off on the way. _'Soutaichou really has been very lenient with this whole situation… I wonder if he has an ulterior motive, and I wouldn't be surprised if he already knows about Shizuka and I...The others have been giving in weekly reports and it's bound to get out into the open sometime soon...I wonder how everyone will react.' _I'm pulled back to reality by the sound of the whistling tea kettle. I chuckle under my breath at the images of the dumbstruck faces in my mind. _'They won't be able to believe it.'_

I pull out two mugs before smiling guiltily and pulling out a third. I wait patiently and when the tea is finished I place the mugs on a tray and walk out of the door joining the kitchen with the office. I see Matsumoto lying on the couch, hands over her eyes.

I place the tray on the coffee table in front of her and pick up two mugs before walking toward my room. I turn my head to look over my shoulder as I hear a mumbled 'Thank you.' I smile at the Matsumoto rubbing her eyes wearily, and smile wider at her shocked expression.

I turn back and continue on to my room, opening the door silently and closing it after me with my foot. I look up to see Shizuka clearly shaking, her breathing laboured and tears running down her face. I run toward the desk in the corner of the room to put the drinks down, and run back toward her, leaning over as I wonder what's wrong. _'Must be a very bad nightmare.'_ I decide on waking her up, gently shaking her shoulder. She wakes up and looks at me with wide watery eyes before scrambling away, sitting up with her back against the wall, arms wrapped around her legs and head resting on her knees.

I'm shocked at her obvious fear of me and I get closer to her and ask softly, trying not to set her off again,

"Shizuka? What's wrong?"

She asks in a trembling voice, not meeting my eyes,

"You love me, right?"

I almost frown at the very slight, almost unintentional stressing on the word 'me'. I move closer instantly and slowly wrap my arms around her.

"How many times do I have to tell you?"

I notice how I was planning to fit in those three words in there somewhere, but choked on them. What an emotionally stunted person I am. Shizuka lifts up her head and looks at me from where I sit next to her.

"I'm so scared that this isn't real...It's some illusion...just Aizen messing with my head again..."

I pull her to me tighter, jaw clenched. "I really wish I could torture him right now."

She looks at me, little droplets hanging onto her eyelashes. She smiles a little before leaning over and kissing me softly. I return it and end up lying on top of her, and, err, things start to 'heat up' until... Well, until Matsumoto. As per usual (I do _not_ mean that she regularly walks in on me while I'm… being intimate with someone).

"Oops! I'm so sorry, Taichou! Ka-chan!"

_'Matsumoto...I _really_ hate you right now.'_

I actually feel more like hanging my head, then chopping her to pieces.

We break apart anyway. Shizuka's blushing a little, but it's sort of ruined by the red eyed yes-I-have-been-crying look.

"Ka-chan?"

She asks, raising an eyebrow while I roll my eyes at her discreetly.

"You needed a cute nickname!"

"You've got a point...Ran-chan."

Matsumoto squeals happily as she moves to sit on the bed (isn't she supposed to _leave_?). I get up and walk over to the tea, noting it's now the perfect drinking temperature. I bring Shizuka her drink before sitting on the bed next to her, away from the distastefully loud Matsumoto ("My nickname even rhymes!"). I hand Shizuka her mug and she glances at me and smiles apologetically before turning back to her conversation with Matsumoto ("I'm a genius like that. You should be grateful for my inventing of such a great nickname.") I roll my eyes again and mutter under my breath,

"So immature."

The two girls hear me, making Shizuka glare with little heat, and Matsumoto pout and start her "you're so mean Taichou" tangent. I sigh. I rest my case.

"You know when to give up, Taichou."

I don't answer as a hell butterfly flies in through the open door, instead I send her a look.

"Jyuu-ban-tai Taichou you are requested at an urgent meeting. One of your subordinates is also permitted to attend."

The hell butterfly flies out of the window towards 11th Division as I say,

"Matsumoto, you can spend your time delivering your finished paperwork, and Shizuka you will come with me to the meeting."

Shizuka nods and quickly finishes her drink. We all go different ways, Matsumoto to the office, Shizuka to her official room and I to the kitchen. We meet up in the office where Matsumoto is gathering a huge pile of paperwork into her arms. As we walk out of the office, I glance over my shoulder. My lieutenant is struggling to balance her paperwork and her chest.

"By the way, Matsumoto, if it turns out you _haven't_done all the paperwork and haven't delivered it, I will still burn the sake. And as I have hidden it, you won't be able to skive off to drink it beforehand either."

Matsumoto's heartbroken face makes Shizuka giggle and shake her head despairingly.

"You hit the nail on the head."

We walk quickly toward first division, making sure to not subconsciously latch onto each other, arriving early. We wait patiently, Shizuka standing to my right, slightly behind me. As the rest of the captains enter, mostly with their lieutenants (because that's who they mean when they say 'subordinate', you can't bring just anyone to a captain's meeting), they notice Shizuka and their eyes widen a bit before, in Ukitake and Kyouraku's case, glinting mischievously.

"Captains!"

Yamamoto bangs his staff on the floor, making all heads turn in his direction and silence fall.

"Before we start, Hitsugaya-Taichou, are you sure you trust 3rd seat Nakamura for this meeting?"

Shizuka doesn't stiffen, or show any sign of annoyance. Just acceptance, because we can't trust that easily (I've broken all the rules).

"I would have brought Matsumoto but she is busy with paperwork errands, and yes, I trust her." I reply calmly.

"Very well, I trust your judgement."

Yamamoto turns away from Shizuka and I to face the rest of the assembled captains.

"The reason for this unplanned meeting is that today we found a soul in Rukongai, easily recognisable as one of our former Shinigami. However, what is unusual is that she is meant to have died at the hands of the traitor Aizen some time ago. She claims it was an illusion and that she went with him, but returned against any possible orders. She simply joined to gain information and that as soon as she found out what Aizen plans, she held no loyalty to him."

I have to make a huge effort to keep my eyes to their normal size. _'Surely he can't be talking about..._

"You may enter now."

"Yasashiburida, minna-san..., Tōshirō."

_'...Hinamori...'_

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Not much changed here, less disgustingly mushy, hopefully.

Until next time!


	8. Importance

Rewritten chapter 8!

(Hello world! This chapter, like the last one, is written entirely from one person's perspective; in this case, Shizuka's. As you have probably already figured out, I hate Hinamori, therefore so does Shizuka and in this fic Hinamori will be evil so her hate is justified. Ha-ha!) - previous comment xD. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do own some bleach, but not the stuff I really want.

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As usual, some look unsurprised, some look incredulous, and some look bored. The surprised ones start firing off quite loud questions, the bored ones either fiddle with their nails or do nothing (guess who), and the incredulous ones have now adopted a 'well, I should have expected that' look.

I peek out of the corner of my eye at Tōshirō's expression. He is very close to being a bored one, but I have perfected the art of reading his eyes. They're in denial and surprised, but as I insconspicuously watch, it changes into…Well, a calm, accepting happiness.

And you know the strange thing with Tōshirō, if it was someone else coming back from the dead now, he would let the others see a little. But, because this is obviously (I don't wince) important, his almost instinctive defense mechanism starts and he shuts off. If it means too much, we can't know that, and if it doesn't, he doesn't care if we know exactly what he feels.

I look back at Hinamori, seeing her calmly answering as many of the questions as she can, but always slyly peeking at… wait for it,… Mayuri!

Not funny, right?

I felt like banging my head against something. Preferably a wall. Repeatedly. I should have known.

I have unbelievably bad luck, after all (Christ, I was tortured and experimented on for years, and I've never been a happy-go-lucky type). Yes I'm pessimistic, bite me. This is just too good to be true, he's too perfect. _Everything_, this whole arrangement, is too perfect, too convienent. It worked out so well! So now that this girl from my dream has walked through that door I know, I know that my pessimistic side has been right all along. I'm pessimistic for a damn good reason. Nothing good has ever really happened to me, and if once in a blue moon I do have a stroke of good luck, it is very short lived (and people say life is beautiful, what _are_ they smoking). God just doesn't seem to like me. Maybe he has a really twisted sense of humor, and I'm some sort of sick joke. He's probably sitting up there, planning my life while he cackles evilly, it wouldn't surprise me.

Miharu's soft voice brakes through my thoughts.

'_This could work in our favour, actually,'_

I nearly laugh, hysterically. What is _she_ smoking?

'_How on earth could this be good news?'_

'_You know as well I do that you have huge trust issues. Do not pretend you have not considered that this is a trap. Maybe this will erase your doubts of trickery.'_

I sigh mentally, she has a point. I…would love to say that I trust Tōshirō with my life, but it would be a lie (my heart maybe… But don't be fooled, it means nothing to me). I do have huge trust issues, one of my biggest flaws, but living with Aizen teaches you that trust is not something that should be easily given. He would play games with you, trying to break your mind. I saw my father die before my very eyes, because I had been led there by Aizen during the invasion. He had known what was going to happen, that father was going to die, and he wanted me to watch, knowing I could do nothing. He wanted to see if I would break.

'_Do you think the dream will come true?'_

'_See what I mean about issues? Have some faith.'_

Faith? _Faith? _What has believing in someone or somebody ever done for me? Where has it got me? Oh yeah, if I simply _believed_ that things would be okay, that I would escape... No, I had to do things myself, I have faith in myself, and that's not always.

Faith is a sad excuse to keep hope.

'_Miharu, do you really think that if he had to choose between us, he would choose me? _I carry on before I can stop myself._ An annoying, manipulative, untrusting and idiotic girl he has known for hardly anything at all, or a girl who was -is- his best friend, someone he could easily fall for, someone who is very important to him and that he loves?'_

'_I rest my case. Yes, you are all of those things, but you are important to him, probably the most important, and Hinamori was never more than a sister and friend, however much she might have wanted it to be different. He loves you too, and it is timeless; it does not matter if he has loved you a day or a year. He has fallen for _you_, not her, and never forget that. Nor should you fail to recall that he fell for all of you, not just your good qualities… of which there are many.'_

I smile inwardly. She always knows what to say to make me feel better (it's nice… having someone who knows you better than you do).

'_Thanks.'_

'_Anytime, little chick.'_

I chuckle silently. I manage to simultaneously hate and love that particular endearment.

As the little mental argument with the sword strapped to my back ends, I hear Yamamoto call out, sounding irritated. "Any more questions you may have will be answered in the next planned meeting. I trust there is nothing urgent to discuss?"

A silence, with Hinamori stepping back and grasping her hands together.

"Meeting dismissed."

The captains turn and file out of the door, most of them looking over their shoulder. Hinamori doesn't move, staying next to Yamamoto. She smiles at them, but makes no move to leave with them, making me think that they don't trust her that much. Tōshirō and I are the last to leave. I see him give a quick, almost imperceptible smile. Hers widens slightly in response, and I look away. It seems like something I shouldn't have seen, something private that is not for me.

We finally leave, as in arrive outside with somebody's head facing the right way. I'm still standing to the right and behind Tōshirō. I glace up at his back, my mind drifting off as I follow him through the now almost familiar path to Tenth Division.

I feel angry at Hinamori, that I want to stab her a million times over with a blunt knife, and that I could do it easily. I frown mentally, what's wrong with the general world today? Unbelievably, I'm not a very violent person, in fact I hate any form of it (unless I'm _really_ mad, in which case I'm the one getting physical). But this girl, I somehow hate her, _loathe_her, because of a stupid dream and a smile. I… feel that I would do anything to make her sad, or in pain. I don't even hate Aizen that much, believe it or not, and just look at what he did to me.

'_Miharu…?'_

'_Little chick, have you never heard of jealousy?'_

'_Jealousy? But…I don't…want…anything she has.'_

My mind comes up with several things even as I think it.

'_You are jealous because she has his attention, you think he will only care about her from now on and you are essentially a selfish creature.'_

'_Gee, thanks.'_

'_You are selfish, as is everyone else.'_

'_Better.'_

We laugh quietly, and I feel Miharu shaking slightly in her sheath.

I look up to see Tōshirō looking down at me out of the corner of his eyes with a confused and mocking expression. I just smile a bit, even though it hurts. He doesn't smile back (oh no, he doesn't smile at _me_ anymore. I squash that thought, being envious is annoying me), he just blinks. I look back toward the front, seeing that we're here already.

He steps forward and opens the huge sliding doors, closing them after us with a snap. We walk toward the office, still silent. I stop by the door at the basket thing where the messengers leave the paperwork, lifting a rather large pile. I stick my tongue out at Tōshirō as he walks forward, not even looking at me.

He opens the door to the office and he walks in, this time leaving the door open. I walk toward Matsumoto's desk, which is usually occupied by me, and dump the paperwork, careful not to drop any. I turn around, and see Tōshirō sitting at his desk, chin resting on the back of his hand. He's staring ahead, eyes glazed over, a tiny but visible (to the trained eye) smile on his face. My jealousy comes back full force and I _really_ feel like killing that bitch now. I stay standing next to the desk, undecided. Should I go to him, or just leave him alone? I chuckle quietly.

'_Wow, this is really messing with my head. The last time I needed to talk to you so often was when I was still in Hueco Mundo and I was trying not to lose my sanity.'_

'_Being betrayed by someone important to you is more painful than being hurt by people you hate.'_

'_But he's not betraying me.'_

'_You think he is.'_

'_Just a bit. I mean, come on, he doesn't need to completely ignore me and forget that I exist.'_

'_Maybe he is distracted at the moment, but he has just found out that his best friend is alive and did not betray him to a man he hates.'_

'_So I should leave him alone?'_

She is silent for few seconds, and then responds:

'_Talk to him, although he is pleased he is also confused and unsure.'_

I raise my eyebrow.

'_Did you just talk to Hyōrinmaru?'_

'_Possibly.'_

I roll my eyes and almost smile as I walk toward Tōshirō. He looks up at the sound of my approach. Then he looks back down. I sigh, shaking my head. Because he's not looking at me, he doesn't see me bite my lip and decide that I don't think he would like me to sit in his lap. Instead, I sit on the desk next to him, facing the opposite direction. He looks up at me, emotionless mask in place, but I see a flicker of surprise and irritation flash in his eyes. I wonder what to say.

'Now, I am a very patient woman, but this is getting tiring' is the first thing that comes to mind. But I sound like Miharu, and not me. My legs start to swing back and forth as I think of what I could possibly say. After a few seconds, I hear an irritated sigh, and I snap my head around to see him rest his elbow on the table and then his chin on his fist. He's giving me a 'well, when are you going to leave?' face. I lean back on my hands to see his face easier.

"What?"

I say, not sounding as irritated as I want to be, because I'm just a little bit too annoyed (meaning upset) that he's treating me like an intruder. He just carries on looking at me, and my eyes narrow, turning into a glare.

"Is she more important?"

"No."

He says it immediately, which would have been reassuring had he not said it in his old monotone voice, the one he only uses around other people. It has the same tone that says he wants me to piss off. He looks down and I cross my arms angrily.

"So that's what you're going to do," I spit, not even stopping for a dramatic pause as he looks at me. I'm angry now. "You're going to go back to being her best friend (don't say the word lover), and now I'm just an unwanted and unnecessary addition."

He doesn't say anything, and I lean down and hiss.

"Is it that easy for her to make you forget? Tell me, am I that fucking _replaceable_? Maybe I'm the one being inconsiderate, so tell me that, don't fucking act like I'm below your attention."

He carries on silent act, although he looks surprised and wary at my swearing, which I don't think I've done around him before. Yeah, that means I'm pissed.

"Am I?"

He looks up at my low near-whisper.

I've been saying all this to just let out what I've been feeling since she walked through that door, back into your life. '_She's pushing you out of mine.'_ I'm saying all these things, all this, and… nothing. I'm tearing my heart open and it hurts, but you don't notice. You don't think that I'm a normal, touchy-feely girl with feelings that can get hurt. I'm only ever angry or bored or tired (or if you're with me... maybe happy).

I wait for what seems like ages. I finally hear his stoic voice, and now there's no 'leave me alone' side. There's nothing at all.

"If you were I never would have let you come with me."

I explode, and even I can feel the temperature rising. Sparks may actually be shooting form my eyes. But I clamp down on it as best I can. Even so, my voice is low and rough, making obvious how angry I am.

"I see. That must be why you're not going back on everything you said, everything we agreed. That must be why nothing's changed at all, why nothing's different, and especially not the way you're acting. You're definitely saying that I'm still important. And it's definitely why you _can't even look at me_."

He does look at me then, and his eyes are guarded. They do get a fraction of an inch wider when he sees my face. Maybe because the two questions resounding through my head and making it hard not to cry are showing on it. Seeing as he seems to know them anyway, I say them out loud, even though in some still rational corner of my mind I'm wincing in embarrassment.

"Don't you know how much it hurts?" All emotion drains from my voice, leaving everything empty and hollow. "Do you even love me?"

I don't wait for an answer, the undeniable crack in my voice made it all too obvious what I think. I slide off the desk and walk away. I don't really feel anything, just a sort of acceptance. Now he's seen that side, the angry and bitter side, my sarcastic and cynical side. He won't love me now. Who could, I'm broken inside and out.

I arrive at my official room and I calmly turn to the door and lock it. I stand for second, not knowing what to do. I slowly take off Miharu, placing her carefully on my empty bedside table. I turn towards my wardrobe and I automatically pick a plain white sleeping yukata. I slide into bed, and I roll onto my side. And although I feel detached from everything, and although a part of me, the part that likes being alone and strong without needing anyone, is fine, it suddenly presses down upon me. I curl up into the foetal position, tears dripping from the bridge of my nose onto my pillow. I take deep ragged breaths as I try not to wail my head off.

After some time, it ends. It's been a long time, I think almost absentmindedly, I haven't cried since father died. I do have a bad headache, and I'm so tired now.

And then I remember why, and it starts all over again. Now a little feeling trickles back in, and it hurts so much more when you're not numb. I hear Miharu's voice, and she takes me to the place where she waited for me, all by herself, until I learned her name. It's always pretty, always comforting, and I know it's the one place that will always be home.

Eventually I stop crying, and I look around at our place.

It's a lake, surrounded by trees. The trees are always flowering, the water is always still and clear, and Miharu is always everywhere. She can be seen in the way the water sparkles, the way the trees sway with no wind. She doesn't physically appear this time, because she knows that for some reason that would make me start sobbing all over again, but I can feel her presence all around me. I'm gently pushed upright, and I walk into the forest. I wander, being pushed by her until I find the little clearing, and I lay myself down on the grass, and sleep. Just before I close my eyes, I see white fill my vision, and I smile.

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I hope you enjoyed! Until next time!


	9. Sea Green Eyes

I'm back! Late again ¬¬. I really wanted to just make some accident happen and Hinamori just dies a horrible painful death and leaves us all in peace, but then where would the suspenseful angst be? He he, so evil. Thank you for your reviews, and for some reason some of you have faved this and haven't put up a review - you must be almost as lazy as me! If I went back and reviewed all the stories I've read I'd be here all century XD. I try to make Zanpaktou thoughts sound, err, wise? But I don't know if it only seems that way to me XD. Hopefully this one is long. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Does it look like I own Bleach? Of course not! Hitsugaya Tōshirō isn't in every episode.

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I stare at the open doorway for what seems like hours, '_am I supposed to be doing something?'_. I make no move to leave my spot on my office chair. Then I blink, realising that she's gone. That happened fast. The words 'complete overreaction' come to mind. I feel Hyōrinmaru's growing agitation as he moves around restlessly in the back of my mind. I blink again.

_'What's got you-'_

_'What are you doing?'_

It's said in the usual icy monotone, but I sense that he is restraining himself from shouting.

I grudgingly admit that I have no idea why, which is a first. What could have possibly made him act like this? After a second I assume that it's something to do with Shizuka, and I raise a mental eyebrow.

_'What, am I supposed to go after her?'_

'_Yes.'_

Well, I expected him to reason why, and I nearly wince in shame as I realise the tone he's using is the one that says he simply can't believe that I just said that, it's obvious what I should do. I try to think of why it would be so… obvious that I'm supposed to move, to actually do something like that. It's not like she's Hinamori.

I sense the horror emanating from him as I think that, and I look down.

''_I don't ever want to something like that again, least of all from you' _he waits for me to say something, but I'm sulking. _'Were you actually listening to a word she said?'_

'_Yes,' _I think defiantly, _'but she was overreacting and--'_

'_Has Hinamori addled your brain? Tell me, in what strange parallel world are you justified in treating someone that way?'_

I try not to feel offended, especially about the way he sort of spat Hinamori's name.

'_What way?' _

He shows me memories of what I just did, or didn't do, and I my horror suddenly grows as he forces me to see things from his point of view, to read his hidden thoughts.

I feel slapped in the face, but undoubtedly better than Shizuka.

After a second, which was a sort of catching-my-breath-and-swallowing moment, I wonder what to do. _'Not going after her. She wants to be alone, she'd punch me if I showed up.'_

'_You fool! You staying away from her is only making things worse! You are only proving, in her eyes, her doubts!'_

He seems to have lost once and for all his inner battle to remain calm. I can't help but reciprocate.

'_And if it was true!?'_

He recoils, and the only word that can describe his presence right now is disgusted. After several long moments, he asks a calm question, like he was commenting on the weather.

_'Would you rather be with Hinamori or her right now?'_

I sit still, thinking it through.

_'Hinamori.'_

I hear the merest whisper going through my mind.

No shame whatsoever.

_'Are you sure you could say the same a year from now?'_

In a split second, I realise something, and this time I don't need to think it through. No, no I wouldn't. He's found the weak spot in my armour. The future, and the fact that I no longer trust Hinamori, especially after today, and that overall she doesn't… _bring_ the same things as Shizuka. I've been glad she's away often, although part of me was happy when I found an excuse to join the Academy.

_'No. I want to see Hinamori only because...well, the obvious reasons. But I miss Shizuka more, and I think living without her would be...'_

_'Cold. You eventually got the picture. Go and comfort her. Prove that every word she said was untrue. And please, at least try to sound convincing._

'_Don't hide from her, she doesn't deserve it...'_

I get up out of my chair, decided now. I leave the office with rapid steps, heading towards the room that she has been assigned to. I know she won't be in mine. I arrive and knock quietly, listening for any sounds. I wait a while before trying to open the door. Locked.

_'Is a locked door going to stop you?'_

_'No.'_

I sense his equivalent smug smile.

_'Good.'_

I ponder what to do. Climb in through her window, which is probably open, or blow the door off its hinges. I decide on the window, I don't want to make her angry. Or make her think I'm angry. I hear a humming and feel Hyourinmaru's approval.

I turn quickly, entering the door on the left. I look around my room, memories of Shizuka's reaction to the mystery nightmare earlier plaguing my mind. I quickly walk toward my window, opening it hastily. I chuckle dryly as I climb out. Not even five minutes and I'm already restless without her.

I crouch on my windowsill, measuring the distance. I guess about two meters. I jump and land silently on her windowsill, almost banging my head on the wooden frame. It is indeed open, with both halves of the window leaning outwards. I enter, and frown unhappily as I take in the scene before me.

Shizuka is asleep, curled up and with her eyes open, still wet tear tracks leading from them. (I shudder, as my mind reminds me of battles past and enemies with no eyes that wept bloodily.) The unfocused look in Shizuka's says she's asleep, and the dead aspect to the way she's breathing points towards her 'Inner Place' (it puts your body in a sort of coma. You're not actually in your body, so it's understandable). I have only been to mine twice in my life. The first time was when I discovered Hyōrinmaru's name, and another when I was nearly killed, and needed to recuperate. For Shizuka to have been brought there by Miharu… It's serious. I feel anger directed toward myself, what have I been doing? How blind am I?

I step down from the widow quietly, closing it after me. I walk the short distance to the bed, and then stand there uncertainly. I eventually take off my captain's robes, and my shoes, and carefully lie down on the bed. I don't want to wake her up. I am a coward, and want to, at least, give her some time in her place before she faces me. Cautiously and awkwardly, I wrap my arms around her. I wait for second, watching her with guarded eyes, but all she does is shuffle closer, and then, in a terrifying moment, she slowly closes her eyes.

Because she's still breathing so shallowly, and her reiatsu signature is far away and tightly controlled by Miharu, it felt like she was dead or dying.

I sigh, and I don't know how to describe it or how to say why I did. I look at the beams of sunlight lighting up the dust motes, and deduce that it's about four in the afternoon.

_'This is not going to help my sleeping habits.'_

It takes a long time for me to drift off, and most of time I wonder if her place is a sky.

_-_

_'It's very warm in here,'_ I think, and I my mind hazily wonders why. _'Am I waking in Soul Society? Hmm, I must be, it's never warm back there… It's always just right. But then again, it's not that hot in Seretei either…'_

I make a supreme effort and open my eyes. And then I blink, and sigh, and wish that he could've just stayed a stupid bastard, because then I could hate him and it would be fine (I suppose I could act all indignant because he assumed that I'd forgive him…And I haven't). Instead, I'm… Well, I'm not feeling guilty, no way, I just feel… anxious.

I wonder how you're meant to feel in this situation? Should I just be happy, comforted and reassured and forgiving, or should I carry on like before, indignant and pissed (and upset and betrayed), and throw him out? I guess the first is how you're meant to feel, and I know that right now I'm the latter.

I crane my head around, unconsciously moving my body as little as possible in an effort not to wake him.

I've moved upwards during the night, or I've pushed the covers down, because one of his arms is curling around my waist, and our upper halves are pretty much glued together. The only thing stopping our legs from doing the same is that the covers are in the way. I feel approval from Miharu at that, the fact that he didn't actually get into the bed.

_'Should I calm down?' _

I don't get an answer, but I knew what she'd say anyway.

Pursing my lips, I look at his face, memorising his features. I love his eyes the most, even if he is the most handsome Shinigami on the planet. I sigh and close my eyes, letting my head flop onto my pillow with a _whump_, nearly groaning as I think that I just don't want to deal with this. Everything was so clear and uncomplicated before, and now I don't even know what to do. I shift uncomfortably.

I look up, and see that he's woken up and is watching me quietly. My breath catches just a little. We're close enough from me to see an image of myself in his eyes.

I don't say anything, and he notices when I clench my teeth and lift my head.

"I am sorry."

It should mean nothing, but it's so near a whisper, and I don't think I've ever heard him pack so much into words before, so honestly apologetic and not a little bit pleading, that I feel a little something get better (and I remember just why I love him so much). I smile hesitantly, not sure -_again_- of what to do now.

"Apology accepted."

I don't ask him to elaborate, I don't think he'd explain himself anyway.

And just as long as he doesn't say anything like "I take it I'm forgiven now?" things will be fine. I slowly place my head back on the pillow, neck hurting.

"I love you."

It's not perfect, far from it. He has this worried look, like he expects me to say "Well, that's one-sided." And I haven't forgiven him completely yet and I am still annoyed, and I just choked. Because apart from father, no one has ever (_ever_) said that to me before. And never in the way that Tōshirō means it now.

I smile, because his eyes are so wide and scared now that I'm crying (silently) like a little girl. And I know that look, he's telling himself that he's an idiot, because _look at what I've done now, and why did I just say that, and what should I do? It's said now._

I hold up a hand, and breathe deeply. When I eventually speak, my voice is hoarse.

"Sorry about that, I'm just not used to people saying that to me."

His face gets this sad, pitying look, but he soon wipes it off as my eyebrows draw together and my mouth twists, acquiring a "don't you _dare_" look. I suddenly lean forward against him, not wanting to meet his eyes.

Of course, now we have to bring up the subject that I really want to avoid. I slowly get an idea of how to start explaining, when he saves me by asking me directly (it is so strange to feel his neck vibrate as he talks).

"In your dream, what did I do?"

He thinks that the reason I got so… affected by the best-friend-back-from-the-grave thing is because I had a dream (nightmare) where he did something, and because of that I wasn't as calm or trusting of him as I would normally be. He's right.

I take a deep breath as I prepare myself, not wanting to go into this because he'll expect me to know answers to the questions that I've been thinking too. I start explaining, as best I can, what I remember. I describe as best I can the weird 'two mes' thing, and he frowns. When I get to the part when he helps her up, he shifts uncomfortably, scowling (before he was confused, when I mentioned _her_) and the slight tone to my voice makes him aware that I haven't quite gotten over recent events.

"I would never," He says indignantly, and I can't help but grin. "And, although she's still like a sister, I don't trust her. She's betrayed me (_'and been an annoying _bitch') too often. I'm tired of it."

I look at him, surprised, because he's not like me. Or, at least, I thought he wasn't. I thought he'd forgive and forget.

"I think she has an ulterior motive. She's still with them, or she's here for personal gain."

Now that's unexpected. I pull back to eye him, lips pursed in a thin line.

"I think her personal gain is you."

His eyes widen, and I feel like cackling. God, what a perfect male specimen, so unaware that she's in love with him. Also unaware that, at some point, he was returning her feelings.

"…What?"

I roll my eyes. "Never mind."

He opens his mouth, and then closes it.

"But she could be telling the truth," I mention reasonably after a short silence, stunned on his side and thoughtful on mine, and he looks a little relieved at not having had to start down this road first.

Love her like that he may not, but care for her he certainly does.

We frown at the same time, and he says, "What should we do? What if we get convinced of her guilt, and act, and then proved wrong?"

I close my eyes briefly, thinking it over.

"Then we will have to live with it."

And he winces at the cold, hard (_broken_) voice.

"If we go and see her, I will act... different."

"I know. She's your best friend, right?" I shrug, not jealous of that aspect of their relationship in the least.

"She was," I don't say anything, busy preparing myself for what is sure to be another…affecting moment. "You are now," he continues, and I almost close my eyes and pray, because I'm not ready for this. "You're much closer… She's a… a nest mate, and you're my--"

I quickly lean forward and cover his mouth, eyes as wide and pleading and _scared_ as anyone will ever see._ 'Don't, please don't.'_

He looks at me, and slowly removes my hand, eyes boring into me. I wince, because how can I explain myself? He doesn't look hurt as I would be, he looks like he really wants to know why I just did that.

"Don't," I choke out, the word blurted into the endless space between us.

He nods, but his eyes flash in pain even as they seem all too understanding of me, and I wince. I lean forward again to hide, not wanting to see his eyes.

"I love you, too."

I whisper, and after a second he leans down and places a kiss on the top of my head.

After about ten minutes I sigh and move away, untangling myself and sliding from under the warm covers.

"We shouldn't waste the day, we probably have loads of paperwork,"

I turn to look at the window.

"And it's only about five or six."

-

I sigh as I follow her example. I look back at the comfortable bed, saying in a regretful tone

"I was so warm, too."

She just laughs, and it's a relief because she hasn't since… Well.

"It was only warm because I was there."

"Okay, that works for me,"

I pull her towards me, arm going around hers as I hold her hand. She leans against me happily, her fingers intertwining with mine.

She walks ahead, pulling me after her. She opens the door, after unlocking it. We walk toward the office, still linked together. I reach forward this time to open the door, and the sight of Matsumoto, sitting at her desk, diligently doing paperwork, greets us. _'I wish.'_ I think dryly, as Shizuka laughs quietly and pulls me toward the desk, pushing Matsumoto out of her chair slowly and onto the floor. She manages to fall into a sitting position against the wall, somewhat. She has both legs stretched out in a straight V-shape, and her shoulders are the only part of her actually touching the wall. She, as I expected from years of things like this, just stays there, snoring loudly, sake bottle clutched in her hand. As I watch, she moves the hand holding said bottle, even when she's passed out trying to take a sip. She hits the bottom rim of the bottle to her forehead and spills what's left down her front.

I roll my eyes despairingly and Shizuka turns toward me and tries to muffle the sound of her explosive laughter by pressing her face into my robes. I don't mind. After a while, she looks up at my face and bursts into laughter again, this time doubling over, holding her stomach. She manages to gasp out:

"T-The...look...on... on your...face...!"

"Was?" I prompt, raising an eyebrow.

"...Pr-...priceless...!"

With a final unladylike snort, which I find very endearing, she straightens up, wiping her eyes with her knuckle. She looks toward the lieutenant.

"Does that happen often?"

"When she can find sake, yes. So every week."

She shakes her head, rolling her eyes.

"No wonder you wanted me here."

She sits down in the recent vacated chair, checking to make sure the paperwork is sake free. I walk toward my own desk, frowning in confusion at the total lacking of unsigned paperwork. Instead, there's a nice neat pile of finished sheets and a little note placed on top of it, with my name and a smiley face on it. I pick it up and unfold it slowly.

Taichou,

Sorry, but I heard the argument and hid behind the door. God, you people! Anyway, I wanted to give you two as much time alone as possible (which means I did all your paperwork, delivered it, **and** I have also done mine). And I gave myself a reward, so don't worry about thanking me! I hope you kids made up, oh and a Hell Butterfly came while you were gone and it relayed that the next meeting is in two weeks time. Have fun! (Do everything I would!)

From your faithful, hardworking Matsumoto Rangiku, 10th Division Fukutaichou.

I make a small smile. She was obviously thinking of trying to cheer me up when she wrote this (and sober, because I can actually read it), and she hasn't failed miserably.

I look back at Shizuka, and she looks at me, surprise evident in her voice as she says, looking bewildered,

"She did all my paperwork."

"Technically it was hers, and she also did mine."

She looks around.

"So what do we do now?"

I hesitate before answering, chewing the inside of my cheek.

"We could go and see Hinamori."

To my intense relief, she just nods and gets up from the desk. Then I get worried as she walks over to me, and stares at me with probing eyes.

"We are going to visit her as a friend, correct?"

"Yes, otherwise she would get suspicious. I want to ask her a few questions."

She nods again, still locking her gaze on mine.

And then things change, like the light from the windows has hit us at a different angle. Instead of thinking of Hinamori or the future and what may happen, we're thinking of each other and we both gain awareness of how close we are. Suddenly there's a flash of heat and it's all I can do not to glue myself to her. Her mouth opens a little at the intensity of… _this_, her eyes dilate. Then she takes the last half-step forward. The heat, which was all around us, concentrates on the places where we touch.

Stumbling backwards, still trying to get my hands on every inch of her possible, I manage to gasp out, still with my arms full of her, "Later… _later_. We're meant to - ah!"

That's embarrassing. I just made a really awful noise, because she has found my weak spot, which happens to be just under my ear. She chuckles breathily, nipping the same spot again, before stepping back, as short of breath as I am. It's obvious that she wants to stop this as little as I do, and I almost fall to temptation when a terrible, serious thought comes to me.

"What if she finds out about us?"

Shizuka doesn't have a face that expresses the proper understanding of the meaning of that sentence. She very much looks like she is going to shrug.

"I'd rub it in her face."

_Ouch_.

"But she could use it to her advantage."

"If she wants one," she frowns in thought. "either way, she won't be happy. I think she'd be livid and bitter, guilty or not. She would tell."

"Then we will have to make sure she doesn't find out, and if she does… that we know or suspect she does, we have to tell Soutaichou immediately. I would rather tell him myself. It's safer that way."

She nods again, then she grins sourly.

"What are we waiting for? Lets go! I'm just _so excited_."

I smile at her sarcastic tone.

-

We walk out of the office, out of the division Head Quarters, toward First Division. As before, we have to walk with some distance between us so as not to raise endless questions.

"If she was Fifth Division, why are we going to First?" I ask, perplexed, and wondering if Tōshirō has suddenly decided to tell Yamamoto and forgotten to tell me.

"She'll be a prisoner there, and it's better to ask him first."

We seem to be getting there slower than the two meetings. We finally arrive, around half an hour after we started. This place is freaking huge! And it's like a maze.

I smile a little as I remember the first time I met Zaraki and Yachiru, running around looking for some new seated officer that was said to be powerful. I nearly laughed at their awful senses of direction and the funny conversations revolving around that (luckily some sense stopped me). I smile a bit wider as I also remember how at the same time he asked me how strong I was, and after learning that I'm capable of Bankai, he grinned like a maniac, which would be scary to most people. But I am more scared of people who smile like, well, who smile like _him_. Sly, you knew you would suddenly wake up to find your throat slit. Anyway, so I just found Zaraki's smile funny, until he released his staggeringly high amount of reiatsu. He seemed to gain some respect for me when I didn't fall to my knees.

He was annoyed at not being able to battle me, though.

I make the conscious effort to pull my thoughts back to the present. I notice I had unwittingly walked closer to Tōshirō so I wouldn't get lost. We are now walking down the now familiar hallways to Yamamoto's posh office. Tōshirō knocks, and we soon hear the old rumbling voice answer.

"You may enter."

Tōshirō opens the sliding doors, pulling them away from each other with both hands. I resist the urge to place my hands on his back as he does so, I can easily see his muscles through the stretched robe. I pass the back of my hand over my mouth to make sure I haven't drooled, and to cover my suddenly loud breathing. What's going on today? Where has all this sudden… awareness come from? And the tension from earlier?

I… I am not used to this. What is this?

_'I bet he has abs to die for...'_

I gulp silently at my thoughts, and try to stop them before they get out of hand. One errant thought slips through the net, and now I'm having to concentrate on calming myself down.

_'I'm _so_ going to see those...'_

I totally suck at controlling… my _hormones_ (!?). Oh God. Is _that_ what this is?

I distract myself by stepping into the room after Tōshirō and closing the doors after us.

"Genryuusai-sama, I wish to speak with Hinamori."

We're honoured with the rarely seen smile of the commander, and he beckons with his hand. One of the many guards steps forward, and Yamamoto says calmly.

"Very well, you shall be escorted to her cell."

Tōshirō frowns at the word 'cell', and Soutaichou notices.

"Don't be concerned Hitsugaya-Taichou, it is in my personal quarters."

"Out of consideration or for observation?"

"Both."

Tōshirō nods, and the guard from before leads us through a side door. We walk quickly through the maze-like hallways, until he opens a door to a room, with most of it closed off with metal bars, leaving the bit we were on looking more like a corridor. I look into the cell. There's a circular window in the wall farthest from us, also barred. There's a carpet in the middle of the floor, and a small coffee table right next to it, supposedly so you could sit down (on one of the cushiony things). There's a wardrobe and mirror on the wall closest to us, the one on the right, and on the left is a single bed. I look around again, and I have to admit it does look more like a normal bedroom than a cell. I look back at the person sitting on the bed.

I don't look at her sickening face, instead I take in everything I didn't before. I compare it with what I saw.

She isn't wearing normal Shinigami robes, like in my dream, but white robes with a light blue sash. Everything else, though, is the same. Brown eyes, brown hair tied up in a bun. She is, I guess, about the same height as me, and she has a petite, delicate figure. She looked over at Tōshirō at the sound of our entrance, and her eyes are shining. I admit that she is pretty.

I hate her.

"Tōshirō!" She squeals like a pig as we walk over to the bars.

Okay, it probably only sounded that way to me. Everyone else probably thought it was _cute_ or something. Yuk.

"Hinamori, how many times have I told you not to call me that?"

Ha-ha, point one-of-many to me.

"Okay, I'll call you Shiro-chan!"

She says, jumping excitedly and giggling. I nearly barf, she's acting like a pre-schooler.

"Fine, Bed-wetter Momo."

She pouts, and I restrain myself from reaching through the bars to punch her in the face. I also quickly cover my reiatsu spike, but Tōshirō notices. Thankfully, Hinamori is probably an idiot, so she didn't notice. She does, however, now decide to notice my presence. And she's not happy.

"Shiro-chan? Who is she?"

Thanks for talking as if I'm not here.

Bitch.

"This is Shizuka, my 3rd seat."

I, being a girl, see the tiny fall in her expression as he calls me by what is obviously my first name. She fixes it quickly though, smiling at me.

It's so fake and cheesy that I nearly upchuck again.

"Hello, I'm Hinamori, pleased to meet you!"

So she's only saying her last name so I might confuse it for her first. So that I'll think that he calls her by her first too. She's gotten defensive and this is pathetic because she shouldn't care what he calls me.

And it's so transparent.

This girl is desperate. I can see it in the very backs of her eyes.

I smile back, using my years of experience with Aizen to make it as convincing as possible. It must have worked, because I see surprise flicker in Tōshirō's eyes. I look at him out of the corner of my eye, and see him shake his head fractionally.

"Ayame Shizuka, pleased to meet you."

I close my mouth and step back, and Hinamori turns her attention back to Tōshirō.

Then there is a lighthearted conversation between Tōshirō and her, and I don't want to intervene, because that would be pushing it. Especially if we only want to be seen as having a captain-subordinate relationship, so I shouldn't get myself into his personal conversations. So I am ignored, and I don't want to just stand there.

I look around, seeing the other window on our side of the bars. _'Observation...'_ I think absentmindedly. I pretend to keep looking around, when I'm really listening to their conversation.

"I'm so sorry for attacking you. I hope you can forgive me."

Oh my, darling, that was so original and so unclichéd. I may have to applaud you for your amazing choice of words there.

"You were only following orders."

"No, I was trusting him more, when I should have trusted you."

Well you got that right. Finally seen the light? Took you long enough. (_'For the love of God, don't forgive her.'_)

"Even so, it's fine."

"Really?"

"Ah."

"Thank you so much Shiro-chan!"

She sounds so damn _excited_. It's disgusting.

"Hitsugaya-Taichou!"

"Hey, Tōshirō, I have something to tell you."

"Say it then, Bed-Wetter Momo."

He doesn't notice her nearly hidden smugness about the lack of correction. I suppose she thinks he deliberately left it out.

I know that he's thinking of what I said earlier. He should be praying for anything other than a confession right now.

I see her eyes flicker to mine, but she seems to be comforted by the huge space between me and Tōshirō, so she continues:

"Tōshirō, I think that... I'm in love with you."

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Bohahaha! Another cliffie! It's Hinamori though, she is evil. I hope you managed to live through the three pages with her in it, I almost didn't.

Heh, maybe I should have made the angst last longer, but I'm just such a fluff bunny. Because of the genius idea of Moonlight-Arashi, I probably will put in the dream sequence from chapter um..., err, 7? Yeah, from chapter 7, in the future. I hope you enjoyed, ja ne!


	10. Set In Stone

I know I said I would be late but I have to write this. I just couldn't get it out of my head, plus I was asked nicely to update soon, I just had to comply! But most of the blame is on my raging teenage hormones. Alert, there is Hinamori in this chapter. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I was the owner, this wouldn't be **fan**fiction

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I'm just standing here, staring at her face.

Well, Shizuka was right. _Is_ right.

Interestingly, Hinamori's face is becoming strained and worried at my silence, and I just can't bring myself to care.

I can't seem to grasp - the meaning of - what she has just said to me. I blink and make a huge effort, and come back to my senses. I search for any sign in her face that she is lying or has any intentions, but all I can see is honesty...and love.

It's angering me.

Why, _why_ does Hinamori always have to come and make things so difficult? Everything was fine, and then she just had to come along and she just had to ruin things. She is making everything so complicated. And the worst part was that she probably has no idea.

_'The only person I love is Shizuka, I need to make clear to Hinamori that I'm not in love with her. Without hurting her feelings or offending Shizuka._

'…_Great.'_

I stand still, shocked expression still on my face, but before I can say anything, she beats me to it.

"I know you probably don't feel the same way, but I think you have the right to know."

She smiles at me, completely ignoring Shizuka, and walks back to the bed, staring out of her ridiculously large circular window.

She's hurt. I know it, but I can't help her.

I finally manage to pull myself together, and stutter out:

"Hinamori, I have to go now. Sorry."

A ghost of a smile on her lips. She knows that I am apologising for more than just having to leave. She turns only her head to look at me. Lovingly.

Well, at least Shizuka's getting a kick out of this.

"I understand, but if you want to, you can always visit again."

She smiles wider, closing her eyes in the process, but I had seen her hidden message. Next time she wants me to come alone. I saw it in her eyes, in the split second when they had flown to Shizuka's face and back to mine before closing.

Although she was complicating things and I hated her for that, she was my first and only friend, my best friend, until Shizuka. And for that I loved her. The thought that maybe Shizuka was the one changing everything, including me, made it impossible not to smile. Hinamori looked a bit shocked, which I found vaguely insulting, before grinning back.

I turn to leave, stopping for a second as she calls out:

"Oh, and by the way, glad to see you're taller than me now, Shiro-chan!"

After a few seconds of just standing there, looking back at her and smiling _again_ like an idiot, I turn and walk out of the door calling over my shoulder "It's Hitsugaya-Taichou!" I can hear Hinamori giggling quietly and Shizuka walking after me.

The guard from before has been waiting outside of the door all this time, and he quickly starts leading the way back to Yamamoto's office. I deliberately pay more attention than necessary to him, not wanting my thoughts to wander. We arrive quickly, and the guard bows slightly before disappearing.

Yamamoto looks up at us from his desk, nods once, and goes back to his large stack of paperwork. Even I feel sorry for him.

As we leave First Division, thankfully, Shizuka speaks before I can get distracted.

"Tōshirō, can we go for a walk? I still haven't really been anywhere else but First and Tenth division."

I nod, and she grins happily, almost taking my hand, before pulling it back. That hurt, but I soon remember our no-contact rules in public. She must have noticed the expression in my eyes before it faded, and smiles apologetically.

"Where do you want to go?"

She tilts her head as we walk forward slowly. She then looks around, and I say, amused.

"You're not planning on something, are you? Like a kidnapping..."

She lightly hits me on the arm, retracting it quickly.

"Shut up!"

She pouts, and I press my lips together to keep from laughing. She looks at me seriously, saying quietly:

"Somewhere we can be alone."

I stop wandering aimlessly, thinking hard before the perfect place comes to mind. I start walking again.

"I know the perfect place."

"That sounded kinky."

"Not as much as your question."

She pouts again.

"Got me there."

I smile, and see a Shinigami carrying paperwork undoubtedly for First Division slow down and stare at me. He carries on staring at me until my patience snaps and I glare icily at him. He obviously realises what he was just doing and hurries forward, averting his eyes from mine abashedly.

Shizuka chuckles into her hand.

"He must have been hallucinating that you had just grown a second head. Or maybe you just smiled," she suddenly turns serious again. "I don't know why you don't more often. It's not like you can't."

"I had to spend years building up my reputation, and I didn't show emotion in all that time, so people aren't used to it. And if they're going to react like that, it's not much of an incentive to do it again, is it?"

She nods, expression thoughtful. "I see what you mean."

I turn my attention back toward concentrating on not getting us lost. I notice Shizuka looking around out of the corner of my eye.

"I really don't know how you manage to find your way around this place; all these maze-like walls and all the buildings are the same," She grumbles, crossing her arms. I shrug.

"You'll get used to it."

She huffs.

"It would be easier if I didn't have to."

"We have spare time. Quite a bit of it."

She laughs quietly.

"You know, something my father always used to say was: 'I'll sleep plenty when I'm dead'," She shakes her head, still smiling. "Oh the irony."

"It kills." I add in and she laughs again.

We carry on walking, eventually coming to an overgrown forest. I notice her eye the dense boughs of evgetation as I gesture in front of me, and she walks in before me uncertainly. As soon as we're in the shadow of the trees, I take her hand, and feel pleased as she relaxes and smiles at me shyly. We walk through the trees, me sometimes helping her with branches and roots in our way.

As soon as I relax, something just has to happen. I let Shizuka walk in front of me, holding a branch out of her way, stupidly not concentrating properly. I let the branch got too quickly, and it snaps forward and hits me in the back of my head.

"Ouch." I mumble as I fly forward and knock into Shizuka. I land on top of her, and after some impressive effort she turns around, so we're facing each other. She notices my pained expression and the hand rubbing the back of my head, and she pulls us both up, sitting on a nearby tree root. She holds my head carefully in her hands, inspecting it for any cuts.

"Well, the skin hasn't broken but you're going to have a big bruise."

I sigh as I sit back up properly again, standing up slowly and glaring in the direction of the branch. I turn around and walk away rapidly, world spinning slightly and face burning in embarrassment as I hear Shizuka's bubbly laughter.

"Were here." I cut her merriment short. It soon turns into wonderment as she looks around again.

"How did you find this place?"

I shrug, watching her slowly walk forward.

"As I said, we have lots of spare time."

I am secretly proud of what I have managed to find, though.

A waterfall. The Fourth Division has many outside greenery areas, mostly open forests or parks, to calm patients and give them fresh air, but this one is seldom used. It is simply too far away for most of the recovering patients who were supposed to use it to walk. It was originally, next to a wing of the division which was destroyed in a ryoka attack. They hadn't seen the need to rebuild the wing, so they had just cleaned away the rubble and left this area alone. The forest eventually spread to cover the entire area. I found the abandoned forest just after Hinamori's supposed death, and I've come here many times. I've never seen anyone else come near the forest, and much less around the waterfall right in the middle, so I was sure we would be alone.

I follow Shizuka's example, taking in the picturesque scene before me in satisfaction.

There is a small underground river flowing through almost the entire forest, and this is where it stopped. The wide but shallow river ends abruptly, flowing down a low edge of rocks, rebounding off each one on its way down. It forms a round pool at the end, surrounded by trees and bare rocks on all sides. But the most beatiful thing is probably that the pool is a natural dip in a slowly inclining hill, so you could see perfectly the sky above, and the wide slow-moving river looks like the sea, something we don't have.

"This is where I watch the sunsets," I admit, knowing that she's thinking of the railing.

I watch as she turns and her expression gains an edge.

"With Hinamori?"

I shake my head.

"No, I found this place after her... absence."

"Oh." Her expression changes again, this time apologetic.

"I feel bad now, for reminding you and everything. Sorry."

"It's fine." I shrug dissmissively.

She keeps quiet and walks forward and sits down on one of the various dry rocks. I sit down next to her, and she takes my hand for balance as she leans forward, running her hand through the crystal clear water. Still facing away she asks

"Toshiro, can we come here another day," she turns to look at me "at sunset?"

I smile. "Of course."

She smiles back softly, leaning back towards me again to gently press her lips to my cheek. Somehow the gesture is more intimate than anything else. She looks at me, smiling with her eyes, before resting her head on my shoulder. I rest my head on hers.

"It's strange," she starts softly, not wanting to disrupt the peaceful silence, "in life this would be full of sounds, and fish in the pond, and birds in the sky... I'm not sure which I would prefer."

"I like this better. The quiet is so that you can really feel you are alone, or it helps you to think properly, and I don't have any special affection towards the insects that would be flying around."

She laughs, and I can feel her shaking.

We stay there quietly, just sitting there relaxed, either looking at the sky, the pool or each other; enjoying a rare moment of tranquility and solace. And it's strange, because it's something I've never had before, even when I put up a wall between me and everyone else. _'This is... amazing. I didn't know it would be like this.'_ I sigh, and she undertsands immediately.

"We should go now."

She says, voice guessing. I nod slowly and help her stand up. She sends me a raised eyebrow and a look, and I just smile blandly.

I lead the way through the forest again, we're going to carry on in the same direction. It is quicker that way. We instantly fall back into the same pattern, and thankfully this walk was shorter, so I didn't have any more branch-to-the-head fiascos. As soon as we come to the edge of the forest, our hands separate immediately. We sigh simultaneously, and then look at each other sideways and smile slightly, Shizuka shakes her head. This time I gesture for Shizuka to lead the way to Division HQ, which she does, albeit hesitantly.

As we walk back, my thoughts can't help but wander off.

_'I can't believe Hinamori is in love with me... Or at least she thinks she is... Has she always felt this way? Even when we were younger? Maybe it's a trap, or maybe because she finally got over Aizen... Strange to think that my best friend fell in love with me... I wonder what I would have done if Shizuka wasn't here... Maybe I would feel the same way? Somehow, I don't think so... Maybe if I had thought what I was feeling was more than brotherly love... But still, I'm sure I would have met Shizuka eventually... I don't want to hurt Hinamori, but she probably will be when she finds out about us. Maybe... when I go to see her, alone, I should talk to her about it... I want her to know before everyone else... But if she really is a traitor, it's something they could use for an advantage... But I shouldn't doubt Shizuka that way, she is strong... But I should probably tell Hinamori before making it public... The sooner the better... But I need to talk to Yamamoto, see what he thinks about Shizuka... Actually he probably already knows about this... With my fukutaichou being... my fukutaichou... everyone probably already knows...'_

I almost walk straight into the door, but Shizuka, who had also been silent, hurries forward quickly and opens them for me. I look at her back as she walks forward briskly. I know that look. I don't even have to see her face, I know it's there. She's been thinking about something, and now she's come to a decision, and she wants to get on with it right away. She also looks a bit nervous, which is strange. My curiosity is officially piqued.

_'I wonder what she's thinking of...?'_

My curiosity spikes even more as she turns around slightly and motions for me to follow her.

-

Nervous, nervous, nervous. I have no idea how to do this, not the faintest. I've never been in this sort of situation before. Christ, I've never even been in a relationship before, and my first one happens to be with someone already dead! I will just have to wing it, again. Works surprisingly well. Most of the time. God, I'm walking so surprisingly slowly toward our destination.

I don't know _why _I suddenly need to do this, okay, maybe I do. Maybe I just want there to be something that no-one else can take away. Something to prove what we have, to set our promises, our feelings, everything, in stone. Some people might not make it such a big thing, but it is important to me. Of course, I had no idea whether he's the same as me or not, but I was 99.9% sure. It was the other 0.1% that was worrying me, though. It was just the slightest chance, but it was there. It was mainly that concept and rejection that scared me. Well, not really rejection, but... It was the chance that he had already had someone special, and I was not going to be his first. And all the other things like that, like him not telling me and what that means and everything and maybe I'm just thinking too much?

This irrational idea first vaguely came to me when... things got fiery just before we left to visit hinamori, and then it formed and I realised what I was thinking in the forest, when Toshiro fell on top of me. I have been thinking about it almost the entire space of time afterwards. Luckily he didn't noticed, but he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts... I can't really blame him. His best friend isn't dead, she's alive and very possibly smitten with him. And he probably thought he had seen it all.

I sigh quietly as I grudgingly acknowledge the fact that Hinamori is going to be a big part of Toshiro's life, and therefore mine.

As I enter my room, I turn around and breathe deeply. I see him looking at me, confusion and curiosity showing clearly on his face. He aso looks a bit distracted, which is annoying.

"I...um, I want to, um... Are you, err... A-Are...?" I swallow with some difficulty. My face turns red as I thought of how to say it, but...

I eventually got up the courage to look into his eyes (_'that was an effort, and how the _hell _am I supposed to ask if he's a virgin or not!?'_)_, _and then I knew he understood exactly. He knew what I wanted because he was the same.

Without turning around, he closes and locks the door, which makes nervous or excited tingles run all the way through me. Then he walks forward, smiling slightly, mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Me too."

I grin at him, and all but run through the small space separating us. I wrapped my arms around his neck, meeting his lips halfway. He strokes my bottom lip with his tongue and I open my mouth instantly. I feel nervous, but excited as I started to slide my arms from his neck, slipping them under his robes, moving my hands under his arms around to his back. I smile into our kiss as I feel his muscles flex. I run my fingers over his back, tracing imaginary lines, enjoying the feel of control I was getting. He wasn't having any of it. While battling with my tongue for domination, his arms slid around my waist, lifting me up and walking towards the bed in the corner farthest from the room.

Our lips stayed connected as he carefully lowers me down, letting his arms fall next to my head.

Eventually we have to brake apart for air, but he just trails his kisses along my jaw towards my ear, and back again, then kissing down my neck. I think he just gave me a lovebite on my collarbone. The nervousness quickly overtakes the excitement as I feel him slide my robes off my shoulders, but I made no move to stop him. I wanted this. I wasn't going to let any pathetic school girl innocence ruin it. I know what I want and what I won't let myself do, but it doesn't stop me from inhaling sharply as I feel his lips travel lower than before, following the path made by his fingers.

He stops moving to look up at me, concern the prominent emotion showing on his face even though his eyes are hazy. I shake my head and smile a bit. He smiles back gently and leans up and kisses me passionately, leaving me gasping for air as he returns to his rather nice attack on my upper regions.

I can't remember what I was thinking, I'm forgetting everything else as I lose myself in the sensations he's making me feel. For a second I feel a bit hurt as I thought that there was absolutely no way this was the first time he's done this, but that was totally overwhelmed and forgotten as he does something with his tongue I didn't think anyone would be capable of.

Oh, isn't this funny. Somehow I'm lying completely naked on my bed, Toshiro kissing the inside of my thigh (when did he get down there?). He leans back slightly to look at me, and I resist the urge to cover myself with my hands and curl up. My efforts are rewarded when I see desire clearly in Toshiro's eyes and he groans before leaning in to capture my lips with his own again.

"Beautiful," and it is, and it's better than anything else could be.

I'm the one leaning in this time, sliding my hands back under his robes, pulling them down further. They were finally discarded on the floor next to mine. My eyes widen and I bite my lip as I run my fingers over the perfectly defined muscles on his abdomen. _'I was so right.'_

I raise my eyes again, hands still tracing patters on the muscles no teenage boy should really have, only to see concern and want battling in Toshiro's eyes. His corded arms are shaking slightly; from holding himself up or holding back, I'm not entirely sure.

And then I smile and reach down, nearly laughing at the face he makes. He's staring at me in surprise, and it's like I've just slapped him in the face with my innocence or something. He's about to smile when I do something that makes him suck in a huge breath.

"You're going to be the death of me," he gasps out looking down at me.

Then I'm already dead, I think.

And it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you enjoyed. I'm not the best at smut, and what was here before was really bad, so this is the improved version!

Until next (last) chapter!


	11. The Shattering

FUCKING HELL!! I so didn't realise it's been five months!! Jesus H Christ! Wow...You all have the right to hate me. Those of you that manage to update every day, two days, or week are just amazing! Do you get like a constant stream of inspiration or something? I get flashes and then-- it's gone and I have no idea how to get where I planned the plot to get.

Anyways, this is the second version of this chapter, the first one was rendered non-existent by some stupid fucking virus! Anyway, moving on, I have several important(relatively) things to say. Firstly,** this is the last chapter **of Burn Brightly. Secondly, I will probably(definitely, but my resolve can be wavered easilyatleast I'm not trying to lie to you guys) be **rewriting** this story. Thridly, I will probably(okay, definitely) be making a **sequel**. There is a prologue/first chapter of said sequel at the end. Hence the length. And the waiting you've all had to do(feels temptation to ban themselves from chocolate for life). Anyways, enjoy(it's looong past due)!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything recognisable...Maybe you'd like to put on a blindfold?

THENDTHENDTHENDTHEND

The next moring Toushirou heads off to go and visit Hinamori, while I try to get some paperwork done. When he gets back he looks a little depressed, so I point to the large pile and he smiles just a little.

Matsumoto stumbles in, rubbing her eyes, yawning lazily and walking in a wobbly line.

"Morning!"

She greets, sitting down on the couch.

He looks up at her.

"Hey, don't you have paperwork to do?"

She freezes, and then carefully smiles. He sighs and rolls his eyes, then turning to glare at the empty spot on the couch. I laugh and walk up to his desk, sitting on it.

"I'm going to go to the pool."

"The pool?"

I wave a hand. "My name for where we went yesterday."

"It's actually more a river ending in a waterfall, not a chlorine filled tank."

I grin. "Fine, I'm going to the 'river end with a waterfall'."

"Be careful."

I roll my eyes but smile a little.

"I'm not a child."

He smirks, looking me up and down. "You sure?"

I cross my arms and huff, sticking out my tongue.

"Yes."

He chuckles, and then his eyes turn serious again.

"Be careful, I mean it."

"Okay, okay."

THENDTHENDTHENDTHEND

I'm wondering around the forest, hoping to try to learn at least part of the way to the hard to find and secret pool. I know it's only been a day since I last went, but I'm already half in love with that place.

_'I think you like it because someone took you there...and that someone didn't take Hinamori.'_

_'...You know me so well.'_

The voice just laughs. The times when Miharu makes jokes are far and few between, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have a sense of humor. She's just very serious.

_'And wise.'_

The feelings radiating from my back are smug.

_'And old.'_

_'...No comment. __**Chick**__.'_

I grin and concentrate on my surroundings.

I carefully pick my way over a raised root, placing a hand for balance on the convulted tree it belongs to. I almost scowl as I look up and realise that I will have to do this many times. Toushirou must have gone via a beaten but still hidden path through the overgrowing plants. About twenty minutes later of painfully slow progress, I realise I have absolutely no idea where I am.

_'You were concentrating too much on not falling on your face.'_

_'And immature.'_

Silence then ensues, and although the amicable fight of insults improves my mood, I come back to the present(again) and feel like shouting, to the world in general, several of the choice swear words in my vocabulary.

No, I must be more constructive...This thing from Bad Boys 2 is a constructive pain in the ass.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...Whoosah. I rub my ears, trying to find the pressure points. Trying.

_'Oh crap. I'm lost. He's gonna be so pissed if he gets back to his office and I'm not there! ...Actually he'd probably go looking for me at the pool, but I won't be there either! Crap, crap crap crap!...Okay, just...walk in one direction, this has to end sometime.'_

I stubbornly carry on the way I was going, trying to go in a straight line. Tunnel vision, come in handy now please!

After _another_ twenty minutes, suddenly light hits my face. I grimace and lift a hand, taking a few steps forward. Blinking, I look down and jump backwards. _'Gah!'_

I'm standing right at the edge of a cliff. Looking around, I see I'm on the execution hill, about halfway up with a river widing around the bottom. _'How have I managed to get up here?' _I wonder. Then I look back down at the sea coloured water, and I think back to the dream I had. I shiver and close my eyes. Then I grin. _'I have dreams about places that actually exist! That's pretty damn cool.'_

I feel a sort of uneasiness rising, and I frown.

_'Miharu?'_

_'Move! Get away from the edge!'_

_'What? Why? Because of the dream? That's not real, remember.'_

_'It was precognitive! Move!'_

She screams again, sounding histerical. Precognitive... I start to turn and I lift my foot to put distance between myself and the edge. I sigh when I feel someone pushing me on my shoulder blades. Turning and grabbing on, I look up unsurprisedly at the loathing and jealous face.

_'Miharu...'_

I whisper in my mind, then hearing a sound, like a hum and a purr.

_'Is it all going to be the same?'_

_'It would be very hard to change the overall outcome. All you would do would be to make it happen quicker or slower.'_

_'...Oh.'_

_'Try to act like you did in the dream. That was how you would act when this first happened to you.'_

_'I'll...I'll try.'_

_'Chickie...'_

"You! It's all your fault!"

I think that I'm meant to be angry, shouting at her. Somehow, even though she hurt _him_, and she's the reason...why he's not mine...And why he ignored me and caused me pain...I just can't hate her enough. Not enough to shout, or even glare.

I just stare at her, she seems a little confused before it's wiped away with another sneer.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

"Why did you push me?"

I ask quietly, trying to pull myself up.

"Because you're the reason he doesn't love me anymore!"

I stop my movements, arms still bent. Slowly I lower myself back down, planting my feet on the ledge Hinamori did. Will.

"No...you have no idea."

I whisper to myself.

"Hmph. Well, you obviously deserve to be shown..."

She trails off into muttering, as she climbs down and stands on my step.

"Toushirou! Save me!"

I still roll my eyes and look away. Cliché.

I hear the footsteps running towards us, and I squeeze my eyes shut.

_"Thank you! I was so scared I was going to fall!"_

_"There was no way I would let you fall Hinamori, I love you..."_

_"No point saving her now, I only ever really loved you anyway."_

"What happened!?"

The same words, as he places his hands on his knees again.

"This girl, Toushirou! She--"

"Shut up. I don't want to hear your lies of how I pushed you over but fell down too."

I snarl harshly, turning to her.

"What?"

He asks, looking between the two of us.

Hinamori doesn't say anything, she just blinks at me, surprised.

Turning away from her, I press my cheek into the cold rock and feel the same words echo through my head.

_'I don't care if I'm killing myself sooner. I don't ever want to hear him say that again.'_

I finally look up at him, and his eyes widen at the tears going down my cheeks.

"G-Goodbye."

I whisper, letting go of the precipice. In what I know are my last moments, I absorb several things with a clarity I don't expect.

Toushirou looks shocked before he throws himself down and holds out a hand to me, straining to reach my hand. Hinamori looks smug, and she smirks before looking at him and covering it up with a horrified expression. For a second I'm disgusted at how natural it looks, before it changes again into one of rage and jealousy once more. She notices his trying to save me, and her face turns red.

I just smile sadly, gazing at his face.

I close my eyes and let myself fall, the wind whipping my hair around my face and into my eyes. It's also cold, and I shudder.

I hear a splash and feel the water around me.

And then, pain.

Back breaking _pain_.

THENDTHENDTHENDTHEND

I gasp and shoot up, clutching my chest with a hand.

I breathe out and try to calm myself down.

_'Just a dream, just a dream...'_

Then I blink, and notice no change in the blackness around me. Abruptly I remember that it _wasn't_ a dream.

It was real.

Real...

Was it?

Panic and fear course through me, and I shakingly reach towards myself, feeling what I'm wearing.

No Shinigami robes.

I reach around to my back.

Miharu isn't there.

I touch my hands on what I'm sitting on, and feel a slightly damp, very cold, hard mattress.

Not a comfortable bed with soft sheets.

I wrap my arms around myself, bowing my head.

_'Miharu!'_

I scream mentally, desperately, hoping that she'll be able to answer me.

I hear her voice, sounding as though from far away.

_'Chickie! You're awake!'_

She sounds relieved.

_'Awake? You mean...what he was saying, about...about... Am I really where I think I am?'_

She doesn't reply, but the silence and the pitying and despairing feelings I can barely sense answer better than any words.

Reality crashes down upon me, crushing me, making me curl up into a ball on my side.

I'm really here.

In Hueco Mundo.

Everything that happened in the past two and a half _years_...Never existed.

And I'm all alone again.

THENDTHENDTHENDTHEND

Wiping my face, I sniff quietly, wanting to break down all over again.

Dammit no. I'll pull myself together and pick up the pieces.

I need to be strong now(just like before...). I can't let Aizen see how this is affecting me. I can't. I musn't. I _won't_.

I purse my lips and rearrange myself into a more a comfortable position. Then an unavoidable sigh is let out. He or his cronies will come to visit, to gloat and observe me like the test subject I am to them.

Not ten minutes later I hear a creak and a bang, coming from my right, opposite me in the hallway.

I ignore the shilouettes in the doorway, two tall figures, and sweep my gaze around the now illuminated sad definition of home.

It's very small, right at the end of the cells on the left of the corridor(the right is a wall). My 'bed' is a simple shelf of stone jutting out of the equally stony wall behind me(which has a barred window) and to my left. On it is a mattress and a thin blanket. On the same wall, to my left, is a door, leading to a windowless, grotty bathroom. Two walls of my cell are bars, with no discernable gaps or locks. The one on my right is shared with another cell next to me.

The only time there was someone there was when they brought in a Shinigami, unseated, who had been sent on an almost permanent mission in the real world. That's how I learned about Soul Society, the man, I remember he had blonde hair and brown eyes, talked to me about it. He told me about the captains, telling me funny stories. When I asked about what the real world is like he said the air is nowhere near as clean, and that people have weird clothes. He explained what Hollows are and who Aizen is, giving me a textbook explanation of the recycling of souls. He reminisced about his times in the academy and told me about his friends. He also moaned a few times about getting lost in Seretei. I didn't mind. He was just trying to hold onto his sanity. And, I think, because of pity. He asked for my story, and I said I don't remember anything other than being here, mainly because of the gayboy down the hall who's going to kill me one day. He looked a little uncomfortable, but then he bounced back and said 'well at least I didn't do one of those fake nervous laughs that you do when you're not sure if it's a joke or not!'. I laughed and agreed, asking him to tell me his probably much more interesting story. Eventually, they gave him to the pink-haired freak, to be an experiment.

"Heya Shizuka-san."

I turn towards Ichimaru, who's lifted a waving hand, staying silent and unresponding.

"Well, seein' as Aizen-sama's pleased with ya, he's told us ta ansa' any questions ya have."

"...What exactly was the hypnotic state I was in? Did I spend the last two years conscious?"

"Nah, ya were asleep. In a coma. He's discovered that he can control ya even though ya not awake, summin' about brain waves... He also sped up yer perception of time, so ya have only been under a few months."

"So I was just seeing what he wanted me to see? Like a dream?"

"Yep."

So the dream was a dream of a dream.

Never had one of those before.

"So my thoughts, they were my own, he wasn't controling them?"

"Aizen-sama can't read minds or control them. Yet."

That's a yes.

"...The places, do they actually exist?"

The shinigami already told me that they do, but he wasn't the epitome of health and sanity.

"Course. Aizen-sama don't want to take time to invent stuff."

"When was I put in the 'coma'?"

"The invasion, ya know. When ya thought ya fought him and won, he actually beat ya and put ya in the coma."

_'That explains everything.'_

"Ah."

"But ya still did manage to get ya bankai. Congrats!"

"Thanks."

I mutter, resting my chin on my hand and turning my head away.

"Wait, the people, do they exist? And did anyone die in the invasion?"

Ichimaru's grin widens a bit, showing his teeth.

"If ya asking if little Shiro-chan--"

"No. I'm asking if my father is still alive."

I state coldly, deadpanning.

"Nah, sorry 'bout that."

I just nod. I had expected it, really.

"Well, we gotta go now, gotta go with Aizen-sama ta Karakura."

I shrug. He turns and leaves, Tousen, who had stayed silent during the entire thing, following.

I see Tousen delibarately leave the door open, allowing me the little light that reaches here to see with. I almost smile. He's definitely the nicest out of the three.

Gin, he's just a homocidal secretive guy, who lies all the time and never stops smiling.

Aizen, a sick _thing_ that, like Aporro Szayel and Gin, views everyone as mere tools. Lower beings, not worth neither his time, consideration or even pity. Another idiot that wants to take over the world, has a serious superiority complex, and needs some medication. What do you do after the worlds yours anyway? Sit around and do nothing?

Tousen, however, just has a very fucked up and twisted view of 'justice'. I wonder if someone did something to him to make him think like that. But anyway, he's not someone who disregards life, he just believes that the means justify the ends. They don't. But still, at least he quietly dissapproves of the 'lower than trash, not even an animal' rank.

Huh, Szayel will probably come and close the door. I can hear him talking to himself down the hall, to my right.

I sigh heavily and lean my head against the wall behind me.

I really don't want to be here.

But where else is there for me to go? Might as well stay here, endure whatever thing they have to put me through, and finally die. Hopefully, they might want to make me immortal or something.

But then again, looking at how quickly I've bounced back into the reserved and apathetic person I was before, maybe I'd just get over it again. Ugh, I'm making myself sound like some unemotional vegtable. And I hate vegtables. Especially green ones.

_'Chickie, you should sleep. You need it.'_

The familiar voice, in a comforting voice, unlike my easy to remember cell, whispers.

_'I was in a coma.'_

_'But it wasn't __**rest**__.'_

_'Okay, I'll sleep. Wake me when they come back.'_

_'I will, little chick.'_

I drift off to sleep, the blankets trying to provide warmth for the cold desert like night.

THENDTHENDTHENDTHEND

**And now for the preview of the first chapter of the sequel!!(But I want to have loads finished before I post, so it willnot might take a while).**

**Hmm, that means this is an epilogue too, I guess.**

**(By the way, this is taking predictions from what I've seen of the newest Bleach manga chapters, and therefore there will be loads of spoilers.**

**And this takes place on the same day)**

Author's note for the prologue.

I came up with this idea during an exam. Then I dreamed about it, and planned it out during playing a videogame. I'm probably going to fail that exam...But I think this is a pretty damn good idea. Of course, maybe something will happen that will make me really want to change something, like for instance, say Hueco Mundo gets completely destroyed, that would kinda...fuck things up a bit. But anyways, enjoy!

THEND&THEPILOGUETHEND&THEPILOGUE

"Alright everyone, it's ready!" The devious and carefree blond in a stripy green and white hat wearing clogs holds his fan to his face. Urahara steps through the black hole in the sky, and we follow blindly.

Blinking, I adjust my eyes to the light. I had expected it to be dark, but I guess the fact that there is no roof and we're in the desert... I sigh as I look around at the carnage Kurosaki had caused during his battle with Ulquiorra. Most of the walls have been knocked down, causing the roof to collapse. I think for a second that if Aizen had survived he wouldn't have been very pleased with the state of his...throne room. Superiority complex indeed.

I feel another surge of relief, pride, satisfaction and smugness as the fact makes itself apparent in my head once more.

The other captains start spreading out, and Ichigo stands up from where Inoue is healing him. He waves at us, shouting something I'm not listening to. A hell butterfly has appeared infront of us, from the crazy purple haired captain of the Twelf Division.

It says something about test subjects and Szayel Aporro, and the captain asking permission to take them as his own, giving directions.

I find myself wanting to go(if only to piss Kurotsuchi off and save whatever he hopes to torture).

I voice this(the wanting to go part only obviously), and Yamamoto tells me to go and find out what there is. He also adds that if there is a soul, I am to give it peace immediately if possible, if it's a shinigami, to release them and bring them for interrogation, and if there are humans...Well, Aizen will have reached an all new low.

I nod and shuunpo to where Kurotsuchi told me, feeling his signature as confirmation.

Arriving, I want to sigh and shake my head, looking at the huge piles of rubble that was once actually another hall. Nemu was kneeling down next to Uruyuu and Abarai, seemingly healin their wounds. Quite close to them is a man with pink hair, looking like he's in his released form, who's standing up, a blade protuding out of his chest.

"Oh my."

Kurotsuchi's voice comes from a hole dug into the rubble, where he stands at a doorway, the huge ornate doors hiding most of him from view.

After nodding in the previous three's direction, I flash-step next to him, not wanting to embarrass myself by slipping while climbing down or something equally stupid that I cannot allow myself to do.

"I came to go over what there is and decide what you're allowed to have."

I say to him as I peer at him sideways. You never know how he's going to react if you mention test subjects.

He just clicks his teeth and shrugs.

We enter, and he turns to the left, where he can see a workroom. I head to the right, seeing cells. If there's actual people in here, human, shinigami, spirits, I was not going to let them 'dissappear'.

The first two cells are empty, and when I arrive at the last one I think it is too, and I almost breathe a sigh a relief, until a voice, a young girls voice, sounds out from the darkness.

"Who are you?...No, what are you?"

It's cold and hard, unemotional. The first defense of someone, also something you learn to do when showing that you feel and trust is a very bad idea. Some people forget who they are under the once facade. Like Yamamoto and Byakuya. Not me, for me, it's still a show. Because I must remain indifferent, I'm a captain. But let others think I really am an ice-cube.

"I am a Shinigami, do you know what that is?"

"Yes. My father was one, if I'm not mistaken. He left Seretei a long time ago."

The only people I an think of that left are Urahara, Tessai and Kurosaki. I feel extremely sorry for her, even more than I do for finding her in the dingy cell that's probably pitch black most of the time, when I think of the possibility of her being the daughter of one of them.

"If you're not one of the conceited god complex Aizen's cronies, would you kindly let me out of this cell?"

I walk up to the bars, cautious. The light flooding through the room shows that it's only bars, no irregularities. I draw my zanpaktou, and carefully press the blade against one.

It cuts easily. I shake my head at the arrogance and proceed to cut a square.

A sound, a slight change, and then a form slips down from where they were sitting. It, she I am assuming by now, moves over quite slowly. Suddenly they step into the light and scrunch up their nose, raising a hand as a beam of light hits their face.

At being actually out of their cell, she visibly relaxes.

"You never told me who you are."

She says, her voice softer, if only a little.

"You don't really need to know that." I turn and gesture for her to follow, which she does, "But I'm Hitsugaya Toushirou, captain of the Tenth Division."

I sense a slight falter in her step, but it's quickly covered up.

"I'm..." A sigh, "Shizuka."

I don't question the fact that she only gave her first name.

We arrive at the door, and she turns and looks at me. She then gives a small smile, just a little quirk of her lips.

"Thank you."

I just nod.

"I guess I'm going to have to come with you for interrogation or something."

I nod again, and Kurotsuchi appears behind her. Her eyes widen for a seond before shooting to the side, her mouth twisting.

"I guess I won't be able to experiment on this one, will I?"

"No."

"Pity. But I found some interesting notes in here, that's all you're getting."

I shrug. "As long as it's not a spirit or a human you can have it."

He dissapears again, calling Nemu. She then appears, and follows him with a robotic 'yes, sir'.

"That guy, he reminds me too much of Szayel."

"Who?"

She walks up the side of the crater. Looking around, she blinks slowly at the piles of rocks. The she points to the pink-haired man, then she jerks her thumb behind her.

"Exactly like him. But I guess he's not allowed experiments like me."

"No, I feel you will be quite accepted, if only because of pity." I slide my eyes to her, "No offense."

"None taken."

"Can you flash-step?"

Her eyes flash, for a second I think it's anger, until I see a slightly wistful look on her face.

"Don't I get cuffs or anything? How do you know I might try to escape?"

"The only way to get out is where most of the captains are concentrated."

"Oh. Let's get going then."

She turns and looks back one last time before following me.

THEPILOGUETHEPILOGUETHEPILOGUE

Phew, finished. The longest chapter ever! Hope you enjoyed, please review, if only to flame.

And if you didn't read the note at the beginning, you should.

Bai bai!


	12. Akaaka To Moeru

Hey there! This is me back from the dead!

This is for those of you who have this story on alert but not me on author alert. Unfortunately I am not here to talk about the sequel of this story.

Instead I shall get straight to the point. I have rewritten Burn Brightly (again). It is now bigger and better and the first chapter of Akaaka To Moeru has just been uploaded! Though it actually has very little in common with this original (mainly the OC, elements of the basic plotline, a few scenes), if you liked this one, I would hope you'd head on over and check it out. I have only uploaded the first chapter and depending on the response, will upload the rest. So if you like it, let me know as you will get more! (the new version would have about twice as many chapters).

And that is really all I have to say I love feedback, bad, good, flame, and it is the only thing I post on ffn for, seeing as I whole-heartedly enjoy writing my fiction without posting it. So please give me some if you are so inclined! :)

Ciao me-hearties!


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